Mr. Abdikadir Mohamed. He is a co-chairman of the taskforce on Parastatals. FILE PHOTO
Dozens of parastatals will be scrapped or merged
if the government adopts radical proposals drafted by a taskforce to
streamline their operations.
The restructuring will see hundreds of civil servants and some parastatal chiefs lose their jobs as the government moves to stem corruption, wastage of public funds and overlapping duties among State corporations.
The taskforce chaired by former Mandera Central MP Abdikadir Mohammed is proposing far- reaching measures in the structure and organisation of parastatals to curb waste, including the scrapping of whole entities and the merging of others.
Among the parastatals to be scrapped and their functions transferred to other entities include the Privatisation Commission, the Tourism Research Institute, the Kenya Pipeline Corporation, the National Social Security Assistance Authority and the Kenya Yearbook Editorial Board.
The taskforce proposes that the functions of the Privatisation Commission and the Kenya Pipeline be transferred to the proposed Government Investment Corporation (GIC) which will exercise ownership, investment and oversight roles for all State corporations on behalf of the national government.
It will also advise the Cabinet on the establishment, merger or dissolution of State corporations and determine the terms and conditions of service for their directors and employees.
In its report handed to President Kenyatta on Tuesday, the taskforce proposes that the functions of the Tourism Research Institute be transferred to Kenya Utalii College while those of the National Social Security Assistance Authority be taken over by the Ministry of Devolution and Planning.
It further proposes that the functions of the Kenya Yearbook Editorial Board be transferred to the National Museums of Kenya.
For many years, parastatals have been used as dumping grounds for cronies and relatives of senior government officials. Many of the appointees had no qualifications or expertise in the fields they were appointed.
Some parastatal chiefs also abused their positions to employ relatives and associates without regard for meritocracy.
Majority of them rely on the Treasury to pay salaries and manage their operations, a situation President Kenyatta asked the commission to look into when he launched the team in July.
On average, parastatals spend upto Sh400 billion annually from State coffers.
“In other instances, indivisible mandates of government have been shared out to separate GOEs (Government Owned Entities) thereby creating overlaps, duplications and lack of synergy in the service delivery loop,” the report says.
“It is for these reasons that a rationalisation and reorganisation of existing GOEs has been undertaken with key principles underpinning the process being to increase efficiency and effectiveness, rationalise areas of overlapping and duplicating mandates, improve service delivery and enhance the ability of public agencies to meet their core regulatory and developmental mandates,” the report states.
The taskforce is proposing the reorganisation of the agriculture and livestock sector to retain the Agriculture Fisheries and Food Authority (AFFA) as a regulator and establish a Crops Development and Promotion Service.
It proposes the merging of the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (Kephis) and the Bio-Safety Authority, the reinstatement of the mandate of National Irrigation Board (NIB) but without agricultural regulation.
The taskforce also wants the mandate of the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation restricted to agricultural research and the reinstatement of the Kenya Forestry Research Institute and Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institutes (Kemfri) as independent entities.
It recommends the establishment of the Livestock Regulatory Authority for the livestock sub-sector, including the dairy industry and the National Livestock Development and Promotion Service as a separate body responsible for livestock development and promotion.
The team proposes the transfer of the Coffee Development Fund to the Kenya Development Bank (KDB), the residual Nyayo Tea Zones Development Corporation to GIC, “having transferred and merged its forestry conservation functions with those of wildlife, forestry and water catchment conservation.”
It further proposes the restricting of the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) to remove the Strategic Grain Reserve and transfer the commercial function to GIC.
In the Environment, Water and Natural Resources sector, the taskforce wants the Water Resources Management Authority (Warma) and Water Services Regulatory Board (Wasreb) retained but proposes that the National and County governments hold further consultations to determine the future of water service boards.
It
proposes the transfer of the National Water Conservation and Pipeline
Corporation to GIC to decide its future and the merging of the Kenya
Forest Service, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya Water Towers Agency and
conservation functions of the Nyayo Tea Zones Development Corporation.
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