How idle civil servants continue to draw huge salaries

By GATONYE GATHURA

NAIROBI, KENYA: Ten months after elections, the Government is still paying huge salaries to idle civil servants in Nairobi, whose duties were either absorbed in merged ministries or devolved to the counties.

New anomalies that are helping push the wage bill to levels never seen before have emerged indicating double payments and a highly bloated civil service at the national level.

On the other hand, counties are recruiting and paying for jobs at the local levels while the national government is paying for the same positions to officers who are doing nothing in Nairobi. An ongoing public service audit at the ministry of Health head office indicates there are about 1000 technical offices with a support staff of 550.

This means for every two technical officers there is one support staff. This is a very high ratio compared to some major firms in the private sector where about 20 technical workers have one support staff.

Most affected are where several ministries were merged such as in Health, Education and Agriculture. Independently these ministries have departments such as accounts, procurement, administration, auditors and others who are either idle or running parallel systems and paid for it.

Idle workers

“Some of these workers are now idle and spend the whole day reading newspapers with some former district commissioners posted to the ministry as administrators reduced to signing work tickets,” says a junior worker at the Division of Malaria Control.

A copy of the audit seen by The Standard on Sunday indicates more than 68 accountants and over 70 administrators, including former district commissioners and deputy provincial commissioners are at the ministry of Health. The situation is said to be replicated in other ministries that were merged or whose functions have been devolved.

While these headquarters workers are being paid for non-existent work in Nairobi, the governors have either filled the positions or are recruiting new workers in the counties, which translates to double payment.

Worried that devolution has so far not reduced the wage bill, despite the Jubilee promise for a leaner government, in November Cabinet Secretary for Devolution and Planning Ann Waiguru ordered an audit of civil servants, thinking the case of ghost workers could be keeping the bill high.

Public sector wages

Official statistics shows that wages in the public sector went up by 8.5 per cent from Sh278.239 billion in 2011to Sh301.891 billion in 2012. The figure is expected to have hit Sh458 billion last year.

But other unexpected shocks may also have contributed to the huge wage bill. In July, the Treasury had sent Sh10.5 billion for health workers salaries to the counties.

However, following the recent strike, the national government opted to continue paying the workers until pending issues are sorted out. According to the Cabinet Secretary for Health Mr James Macharia, the governors were supposed to return this money to the Treasury but this is not happening.

It is suspected that some of this money has been used in recruiting new workers, meaning the national government has lost Sh10.5 billion in unplanned expenditure. But even more importantly is the wastage of skills that is being witnessed in the ongoing devolution drama.

Qualified doctors in Nairobi

While the country suffers from an acute shortage of qualified medical and even veterinary officers, some of the most experienced and best-educated workers are still held in Nairobi.

At Afya House and several departmental offices at Kenyatta National Hospital, there are about 100 medical doctors whose work involves disease control and prevention, functions that have since been devolved to counties.

In a list of 77 health appointments made by Mr Macharia in September at Afya House, 58 were doctors.

The country and mainly rural areas face serious shortage of medical doctors especially the high calibre staff found at the head office.

Even as a frustrated President Uhuru Kenyatta gave Cabinet secretaries an ultimatum on Friday to deliver on Government promises or face the sack, the malaise in the civil service could lead to a major crisis such as the one facing the livestock sector at the moment.

The Veterinary department, for example, is yet to mount a coordinated campaign to stop the spread of Foot and Mouth disease first reported in Naivasha in October, but has since affected large parts of the country like Mombasa, Kisii, Bomet, Narok, Laikipia, Uasin Gishu, Kajiado, Nairobi, Migori and Nakuru with several counties such as Bomet having closed down livestock markets.

For lack of a substantive Director of Veterinary Services, the disease outbreak is yet to be gazetted as required by law.

This could irreparably hurt the livestock sector and international trade in animal products.