The government might not hire new employees soon in efforts to free more money for development, Public Service Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia has said.
Money for development has in the past been gobbled up by a bloated wage bill.
And as a sign of an end to permanent terms for civil servants, fresh entrants will henceforth be hired on contract if the proposal by the Public Service Commission is approved.
At the same time, the government has no plan – at least not in the near future, to retrench workers, thanks to lessons learnt after the 2000 downsizing.
The focus is now on how to make performance management a tool to improve efficiency in government and strengthening of Huduma centres.
“We are not going to retrench but rely on natural attrition like cases of retirement or say for slots left by people who have left public service voluntarily after finding other jobs,” the CS said.
“It is not right to say people will lose jobs coz the government has a bigger responsibility other than looking at one aspect. There will be no job cuts.”
Kobia' exclusive disclosure to the Star on Tuesday might dampen the hopes of millions of Kenyans seeking jobs in the government.
This financial year, Sh1.073.0 trillion will be spent on running ministries – salaries and operations. This compares dismally with Sh671.6 billion set aside for development.
The government is under pressure to end corruption and make the huge workforce - whose expenses account for 52 per cent of revenue - efficient.
It is not right to say people will lose jobs coz the government has a bigger responsibility other than looking at one aspect. There will be no job cuts.
Kobia acknowledged that the role of government is to facilitate the private sector to grow, with the profits giving it a competitive advantage to create jobs.
“Governments should be lean and should not have more staff than they need,” she noted.
Kobia was, however, of the view that the government needs to beef up its staffing need beyond the current 60 per cent.
“We are considering whether we can bank on performance management to improve efficiency other than cutting numbers. When we retrenched staff in the year 2000, we created more difficulties to this country than good.”
“Governments are for the common good. It is not like the private sector driven by profits. Even if the government doesn’t pay a lot, it gives a decent job,” she said.
Why is the wage bill high?
The CS attributes the unsustainable wage to slow economic growth. She said that Kenyan salaries for public service are higher than those of other regions.
She says counties have employed more people amid concerns that some roles – like at the ward level, are a duplication of jobs already taken care of by chiefs and their assistants.
“Those are some of the areas that the country should consider in the event we have a review of the Constitution,” the CS said, noting that there is the need for talks to reducing the number of staff.
Another issue is the downsizing the workers of the defunct county governments incorporated in the devolved units. Most of them are on permanent and pensionable terms.
Kobia said her office’s role is just to advise counties. She vouched for the creation of a County Public Service Commission.
The CS lamented the skewed composition of county public service boards, saying they are likely to be compromised by the Executives, being their source of funding.
On contract hiring, she said the government’s position is that there are some positions that have to be retained on the permanent and pensionable terms.
“These people are the machinery that runs the government. However, those in Job Group T and above can be on contract as well as lower cadre staff.”
The government is, in this regard, consulting on whether the contracting arrangement will address issues of performance.
“This contract hiring matter came out as a proposal but it seems a number of people took it far to say all public servants will be affected from July. You cannot change people’s terms like that. People work under terms that can only be changed after consultation with them and their unions,” Kobia explained.
The proposal of the PSC and the Council of Governors is that workers should be hired on contract to boost performance – ostensibly in the latter’s fight with health officials over terms.
The Senate Labour committee chaired by Johnson Sakaja (Nairobi) has dismissed the proposal as a ‘backdoor policy'.
Sakaja, backed by Senators Mutula Kilonzo (Makueni), Ochillo Ayacko (Migori), and Abdullahi Ali (Wajir), warned that the shift will have a negative impact on productivity.
But Kobia quelled the fear saying, “When people are coming in, we will sit as a government and decide whether to hire on contract. The policy shift will need public participation.”
The CS also fought off assertions that there are a number of government officers who are in office yet they have attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 years.
She said even those retained by the government – on contract, cannot account for one per cent of the about 66,000 workers.
Treasury data shows that 840,600 new jobs were created in 2018, 83.6 per cent in the informal sector.
“We can only hire them if they don’t block someone from getting a promotion or have technical skills needed by a ministry making such a request,” the CS said.
“It is at the boards of parastatals where you will find workers of this age owing to their experience. Universities have a different age cap.”
She exuded confidence that her ministry will navigate the imbalance in the ethnic composition of state agencies.
The NCIC Act and County Governments Act, 2012, stipulate a 70:30 ratio as the ideal share of majority and minority groups.
“But even so, the minority communities have always expressed discomfort that they are not being treated well, or are not welcome,” Kobia noted.
“We are trying to make them as comfortable as possible and that is why we even brought experts from Cuba to help balance the workload.”
The CS made a radical proposal that if need be, governors should not be running counties in their cradle land. “To achieve a unitary element, we must make a radical change.”
The feeling in government is that factors shaping community representation in public service are historical.
“It is good to talk with data so that we look at ethnicity versus the population census. You will find the large communities have more persons in the public service.”
Kobia said the government has made deliberate efforts to reach the marginalised groups to increase their number in the civil service, “but this can only be done at hiring and not promotions.”
“You may feel the jobs are monopolised but on the ground, the numbers play differently. We are doing better than where were in 2013.”
