Wage bill has risen by Sh160 billion in four years

The Government payroll has ballooned by Sh160 billion in the past four years. This is despite efforts by Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to contain the wage bill.

Data from the SRC shows civil servants were paid Sh627 billion in salaries and allowances in the 2015-16 financial year. This compared to Sh464.9 billion when the current government came to power.

The wage bill has been growing by about 10 per cent every year or by Sh40 billion.

This means that salaries consume about half of all revenues collected by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), leaving the remaining half to take care of other costs including repayment of debt and development expenditure.

SRC says several institutions have been regularly writing to the commission seeking salary increments of as high as 40 per cent.

"The commission has granted where a case deserves no more than 10 per cent considering the conservative approach the commission has applied," SRC Chairperson Sarah Serem told The Standard. Ms Serem says her commission has stopped salary demands of Sh100 billion on average per year.

SRC says Government agencies have frustrated its efforts by not complying with its recommendations.

"The commission has issued several circulars since 2012. A number of institutions and county governments have often-times failed to adhere to the SRC's advice either due to misinterpretation or deliberate interpretation to suit their own interests," Ms Serem said.

In addition, some Government institutions among them the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) have also not cooperated in undertaking the job evaluation exercise.

SRC says it is looking into how best to approach the thorny issue of productivity and performance.

"It is estimated Kenya's labour productivity stands at below 3 per cent. At this rate, achieving a middle-income economy as stipulated in Vision 2030 might be hard to crack," SRC says.

"This is unfortunate because Kenyans are among the most skilled and educated in Africa, and should therefore be recording higher productivity levels," Serem said.

Countries like India, Japan and China have productivity levels of between six and seven per cent. Rwanda and Ethiopia have reached 5 per cent levels.