By MUGAMBI MUTEGI, pmutegi@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- Key government agencies have been left without a substantive leadership for close to two years.
- Corporate management experts say this is a bad practice that grossly undermines organisational performance.
- That some of the positions have been vacant for more than two years is being seen as pointing to political rather than technical challenges of finding suitable candidates.
Nearly 10 government agencies have been left
without a substantive leadership for close to two years, raising
questions over their performance and effectiveness of the appointing
authorities.
The severity of the leadership vacuum is
underlined by the fact that most of the agencies involved are in key
sectors of the economy such as the capital markets, energy and
agriculture.
The list of State firms that are currently run by
acting executives include the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), the
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Rural Electrification Authority
(REA), the Vision 2030 Secretariat, the Kenya National Bureau of
Statistics (KNBS), Sony Sugar and the Tea Board of Kenya (TBK).
Corporate management experts say this is a bad practice that grossly undermines organisational performance.
“Most acting CEOs are people who have been picked
from within the institutions and who are capable of doing the assigned
job,” said Samson Osero, the executive director of the Institute of
Human Resource Management.
“Still they do not get confirmed for reasons that may never be known.”
Public Service Commission (PSC) chairperson
Margaret Kobia said that while the normal practice requires people to
act for about six months after which they are either confirmed or
replaced, this has not always been the case in government.
“Some of these appointments are being delayed by the ongoing parastatal reforms,” said Prof Kobia in an interview.
“It has been proposed that some State firms be
merged and some be wound up altogether and it should therefore be
understandable if some agencies stayed without substantive heads pending
completion of the reforms.”
Prof Kobia’s position is, however, contradicted by the fact that only two of the seven vacant positions involve State firms that are earmarked for mergers or disbandment.
More than five of the seven positions fell vacant
after previous occupants served maximum terms and left, throwing the
institutions into a protracted hiring of substantive replacements.
That some of the positions have been vacant for
more than two years is being seen as pointing to political rather than
technical challenges of finding suitable candidates.
Political patronage has in the past been used to
justify nullification of hiring processes that were almost complete with
the shortlisting of candidates.
In some cases like the CMA, the process of filling
the vacant position had actually reached the penultimate stage with the
handover of the names of three candidates to the appointing authority
only for the process to stall.
The ensuing stalemate has left Paul Muthaura with
the dubious distinction of being one of Kenya’s longest acting chief
executives
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