- Margret Kobia said the 2014 study determined that the country's public sector wage bill was not sustainable and that there was a need to reduce it.
- According to the former CS, a policy would provide a clear-cut protocol on implementation and responsibility.
Image: FILE
Former Public Service Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia has called for the rollout of a public sector wage bill policy to deal with industrial actions by workers.
The ex-CS said that while the government had in 2014 been advised to develop the policy to harmonise pay for public sector workers, nothing has been done.
She said the development and implementation of such a policy would go a long way in not only addressing salary disparities but also ensuring uniformity.
"The most urgent thing we need to have now is a policy because it will help the country have a uniform way of implementing things,'' she said.
She said that in 2013, when the Public Service Commission came in under the new constitution, there was concern about the country's wage bill after the creation of many offices.
"As the Public Service Commission and the Kenya Institute of Policy and Research, we started asking ourselves that the wage bill was not sustainable,'' she said.
Speaking on Citizen TV, Kobia said the 2014 study determined that the country's public sector wage bill was not sustainable and that there was a need to reduce it.
"Therefore, we were advised through a study that the government needs to reduce its wage bill by developing a public sector wage bill policy but up to date, we still don’t have a policy,'' she said.
The ex-CS said the public Sector Wage Bill was to provide for mechanisms to reduce the country's then ballooning public sector wage bill.
"Unless we have a policy that asks what are the issues in public wage bill, what is the situation analysis and what is the situation in other countries which are comparable with ours, we can't address the issue,'' she said.
She said the upcoming Salaries and Remuneration Commission conference would help reflect on the lessons learnt from the past two such events.
According to the former CS, the study asked that the government utilise the available human resources and harmonise the wage bill.
"I am of the view that having this conference should move towards a policy, at least the job evaluation was done, and that would help the country towards addressing the public wage bill,'' she said.
According to the former CS, a policy would provide a clear-cut protocol on implementation and responsibility.
SRC Chairperson Lyn Mengich has said that the public wage bill has consistently remained above the 35 per cent to-revenue ratio and continues to be physically unsustainable.
She has said it is shrinking the resources available for development and the government’s priority agenda.
SRC is holding a third National Wage Bill conference between April 15th -17th at the Bomas of Kenya.
The conference will bring together high-level leadership from national and county governments, associations, and the media, among others.