ICT ministry ranked among five poor performer in 2021-22

The Ministry of ICT has been ranked among the five worst-performing government dockets in the last financial year, a report shows.

The Evaluation of the Performance of Ministries, State Corporations and Tertiary Institutions report for the 2021-22 financial year said Trade and Enterprise, Transport and Livestock ministries followed in second position. 

The Ministry of ICT was ranked the number one worst performer followed by Trade and Transport ministries, Agriculture and Sports docket.

“The performance of ministries had a marginal improvement in the financial year 2021-22 compared to that of 2020-21 since the average composite score improved from 3.3920 to 3.2594,” the report said.

The 2021-22 report represented the 18th Cycle of Performance Contracting in the Kenyan public service.

A total of 394 ministries, departments and agencies were placed on performance contracting during the period, comprising State House, the Office of Deputy President, ministries and the Office of the Attorney General.

Of the total 23, two ministries were ranked as excellent, none was ranked as very good.

Sixteen were ranked as good, five (fair) and none (poor).

A team drawn from Public Service Performance Management Unit, State Department for Public Service and Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat undertook the moderation.

The report also listed 10 state-owned corporations as the least-performing agencies in the country.

They include the Commission for University of Education and the Council of Legal Education.

CUE is mandated to regulate and assure quality university education through setting standards and guidelines and monitoring compliance to achieve global competitiveness.

Others are University of Nairobi Enterprises and Services Limited,Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council and the Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund.

Further, five other least-performing state corporations included sugar companies.

These are National Council for Children's Services, Chemelil Sugar), South Nyanza Sugar, Nzoia Sugarand Bandari Maritime Academy.

"South Nyanza Sugar attributed its dismal performance to low operating volume occasioned by low efficiency in sugar cane milling plant," the report reads.

The report says that this was a result of the non-approval of capital expenditure by the National Treasury due to the pending leasing of state-owned public sugar companies.

Uon Enterprises said they were affected by the MDAs experience and budgetary cuts which affected revenue allocation.

"For Nzoia Sugar, it was affected by the frequent breakdown of the factory and inefficiencies occasioned by delayed maintenance of its sugar cane milling plant," the report reads.

The event at KICC was graced by Cabinet Secretaries, governors, Principal Secretaries, chairpersons and chief executive officers of state corporations, chairpersons and principals of tertiary institutions.

Also at the event were performance contract coordinators in MDAs, development partners and representatives from the private sector.

Performance contracting is the flagship performance management tool that the government has adopted in the running of the public service.