•Wants staff who retire voluntarily awarded with golden handshake
•Counties inherited thousands of personnel from defunct local government
Image: FILE
Kisumu Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o has proposed scrapping of permanent hiring at both national and county governments to check the ballooning wage bill.
He instead wants all county and national government staff to be hired under contract terms without pension but a gratuity.
“Let us implement contractual terms both at the national and county governments because permanent and pensionable is the problem,” Nyong’o said.
The governor urged the two levels of government to consider awarding a modest golden handshake to employees who opt to voluntarily retire from public service to help reduce the high workforce.
This, he said, is important if the government wants to deal with a bloated workforce which has led counties to pay salaries at the expense of development.
He said counties have been unnecessary bashed by reports from the offices of Auditor General and the Controller of Budget over a bloated workforce without analysing the genesis of the staffing problem.
Nyong’o said apart from hiring their staff in line with the Constitution, counties inherited thousands of personnel from the defunct local government who were deployed to serve in the devolved units.
“We should not treat it as if we are dealing with normal public service,” he said.
He spoke yesterday in Kisumu during the official opening of the fourth Legislative Summit which brings together all senators and MCAs.
The ballooning wage bill has been cited as a major concern as it emerges that counties spend their allocations on salaries and remain with little to initiate development projects.
Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo’s quarterly report covering July-December 2018 reveals that county governments spent over Sh80 billion on salaries in the first six months of the current financial year.
Odhiambo faulted the manner in which the devolved units are engaged in uncontrolled hiring in total violation of existing laws and guidelines.
Past data on county government expenditure indicates that compensation of employees has increased by 131 per cent from Sh64 billion in the 2013-2014 financial year to Sh148 billion in 2017-2018.
This shows that salaries and remuneration take close to 40 per cent of the county expenditure while another 22 per cent (Sh89 billion) is spent on administrative costs.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)