Cabinet and principal secretaries will be stripped of powers to
hire and fix the pay of their personal assistants if a new set of
regulations is adopted.
The proposals state that hiring
of their personal assistants or aides will be done by the Public
Service Commission (PSC), which will also set their salaries.
Ministers
and PSs have had a free hand in hiring the aides, normally friends and
cronies, and burdening taxpayers with their unregulated pay.
“The
commission may, upon request, appoint a personal assistant for Cabinet
Secretary,” the PSC chairperson Margaret Kobia says in the proposed
regulations, which are currently the subject of public debate.
For
principal secretaries, the commission will source for a personal
assistants from among workers already employed in the civil service.
“The terms and conditions of service for personal assistants shall be determined by the commission,” adds Prof Kobia.
Curb staff costs
The decision by the PSC to limit appointment of taxpayer-funded aides could be seen as a strategy to curb staff costs.
Kenya’s
public wage bill stands at Sh627 billion a year, gobbling up half of
government tax receipts and employing 700,000 civil servants who account
for only two per cent of the population.
The PSC
regulations also state that the hiring of personal staff for President
Uhuru Kenyatta, his deputy William Ruto and former presidents Mwai
Kibaki and Daniel arap Moi will be done by the commission.
They
include secretaries, drivers, cooks, personal assistants, health
fitness instructors, housekeepers, gardeners and laundry persons.
The top officials have had a free hand in picking their assistants.
No comments :
Post a Comment