Kenya seeks Sh2b to retrench thousands of civil servants

Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru. The ministry is procuring a consultant to aid in rationalising the public sector workforce.

By JAMES ANYANZWA

NAIROBI, KENYA: The Government will spend Sh2 billion on retrenchment of excess workforce in the civil service.

An estimated 100,000 public officers could be sent home as the Government embarks on an ambitious exercise to clean up its payroll and control the growing wage bill.

Tuesday the Ministry of Devolution and Planning applied for a total of Sh2 billion from the Exchequer to finance the rationalisation programme, which is expected to kick off in the next financial year (2014/2015).

Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru tabled the financial proposals before the Parliamentary Budget and Appropriation committee through the parliamentary committee on Finance, Planning and Trade. She wants the funds to be factored in this year’s (2014/2015) budget.

“We have been talking about rationalisation of the public service. The ministry needs Sh2 billion for this exercise. This is what they said they need,” said Nelson Gaichuhie, vice chairperson, parliamentary committee on Finance, Planning and Trade.

Already the Devolution and Planning Ministry is in the process of procuring a consultant to aid in rationalising the public sector work force within national and county governments. The private sector consultant will be required to establish, among others, the optimal number of workers within government.

RENDERED REDUNDANT

The Jubilee administration has hinted that an estimated 100,000 civil servants could be rendered redundant in an attempt to contain the spiralling wage bill, which currently stands at Sh458 billion per annum.

According to the Transition Authority (TA), the body mandated to oversee the devolution process, the recruitment programme in the public sector should only be restricted to core sectors, which have direct bearing to service delivery to the people.

In addition the authority noted that recruitment in administrative services should be frozen until existing staff are deployed.

 The authority has also proposed a complete overhaul of the sitting allowance for public officers who attend board meetings in parastatals, saying such benefits are subject to abuse.

With an estimated 700,000 workers the civil service has come under intense scrutiny for what is being seen as a drain on public resources.

The matter has been worsened by the revelations that taxpayers could be sustaining over 300,000 ghost workers in the civil service.

WAGE BILL

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) estimates that more than a half of the people in the public service do not exist and cleaning up the public payroll could significantly reduce the wage bill.

“We have 700,000 employees in the public sector and there is an indication that possibly a half of these or a quarter are ghost workers,” said Sarah Serem, chairperson, SRC.

According to TA, recruitment practices that are inconsistent with the needs of the public service and absorptive capacity of the national economy should be reviewed.