Politics and policy
Retired civil servants: The government has tried to remove the pension burden. Photo/FILE
By MUGAMBI MUTEGI, pmutegi@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- Minister reveals plans to put top government workers on contracts to raise productivity.
- The proposal means that future promotions of persons serving as directors (Job Group T) and secretaries (Job Group S) would come with contract conditions that are tied to performance.
- The policy shift aims to cut down on the wage bill that currently stands at more than Sh500 billion
Hundreds of senior civil servants may soon find
themselves without job security that comes with government employment as
the State moves to trim its wage bill and increase the productivity of
its workers.
Planning secretary Anne Waiguru has announced
plans to place all State employees in Job Group U and above on
contracts, signalling a possible end to their employment on permanent
and pensionable terms.
“We want to put top cadre officers on contract
once they get to a certain job group and tie their continued stay in the
public service to how well they perform,” Ms Waiguru told the Business Daily on telephone.
“In fact, there will be a major policy
announcement this Friday in line with this. Unless we are advised that
introducing contracts will be expensive to the government or even
illegal, this is the direction we want to go,” she said, adding that
anyone who gets employed on contractual terms would be deemed to have
left the Civil Service and immediately receive their pensions.
The proposal means that future promotions of
persons serving as directors (Job Group T) and secretaries (Job Group S)
would come with contract conditions that are tied to performance.
This group of senior civil servants would join
Cabinet secretaries, principal secretaries and those serving as members
of independent commissions in contractual employment for specified
periods of time.
Ms Waiguru said the policy shift aims to cut down
on the wage bill that currently stands at more than Sh500 billion and
has become a big risk to the country’s development.
“There is a lot of discontent among employees that
their seniors earn way more than them and introducing contracts is one
of the structural reforms that will address this disparity and bring
down the wage bill,” Ms Waiguru said.
Adoption of the proposal would free the government
to extend or terminate the employment of senior civil servants and pay
them a gratuity for the period served.
The exit of such highly paid senior civil servants
would then create room for the hiring of cheaper and more productive
people to fill the vacant positions – enabling the state to meet the
twin objectives of retaining a better priced and more productive labour.
Improving productivity is particularly important
to the government, which is facing criticism over the sluggish growth of
efficiency in service delivery in the past decade.
Official statistics show that productivity in the
Civil Service improved by a paltry 30 per cent margin in the past 11
years but the wages rose 28 per cent in the past five years alone,
making the public jobs more lucrative than private sector employment.
It is estimated that contractual employment could help the government make extra savings in pension payments.
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