Public Service Commission boss warns counties over hiring

Disciplinary action will be taken against county boards that flout recruitment procedures, the Public Service Commission has warned.

PSC Chairperson Margaret Kobia faulted counties for recruiting and grading staff without following the laid down human resource recruitment procedures.

She particularly criticised the Kakamega County Public Service Board's decision to downgrade employees hired on Job group R and now being downgraded to Job group Q contrary to human resource guidelines.

"When you advertise for a specific job and grade and finally hire staff, you cannot ask them to change their grades in the middle of their employment," Prof Kobia said.

"If you realise that they should have been on a different scale or grade, the best thing to do is to cancel the advert and advertise under the grade you want but not change mid-stream. It is an offence to do so and any officer found to have done so will be punished even after he or she has since left employment," she added.

She also wants counties to recruit staff from other counties so long as such staff qualify for the positions advertised.

She also warned against removal of seconded staff without following due process.

"There is need for clarity on hiring procedures and varying the process is unprofessional. There are counties that have ignored seconded staff. There are procedures for doing so," she explained.

Kakamega County advertised for jobs last year, whose terms of service were permanent but later the already recruited staff were asked to change to contracts, contrary to human resource guidelines on recruitment of staff. In the process, staff whose jobs were never advertised were instead inserted in the changes creating animosity between employees.

When contacted, the county executive in charge of Public Service and Administration Rachel Okumu said she does not have information about the said downgrading of staff or any changes made in their terms and conditions of service.

"I am not aware of any changes or downgrading of staff at the county level unless I check it but the right person to have the information is the chairperson county service board," said Ms Okumu.