Evaluation of civil servants set for major changes

By Mwaniki Munuhe 

Nairobi, Kenya: President Uhuru Kenyatta has introduced a new method of assessing the performance of public servants, The Standard on Sunday can report.

 The assessment performance will be used to monitor all public servants including Cabinet Secretaries and all accounting officers among others.

Although by the time of going to press we were yet to obtain a copy of the assessment guidelines, credible sources within Cabinet intimated that the new performance guidelines have a more efficient criteria for ensuring that various sectors identify their key result areas and performance targets and share them with the public for information and monitoring.

In fact, the assessment mechanism has incorporated an automated real time performance tracking and monitoring system which will support reporting and monitor progress on a continuous basis.

Similarly, dashboards will be available for all accounting officers and heads of institutions detailing summary progress for either recognition or intervention as and when required.

Guidelines

“This year’s guidelines on performance contracts contain a number of key changes which have been incorporated to improve the efficacy of the performance contracting system.  Firstly, ministries, departments and agencies will be expected to align their performance targets to the 2nd Medium Term plan of Vision 2030. This will align performance contracts to the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, in order to harmonise the processes of planning, budgeting and target setting. The targets will be based on a baseline indicator, to be tracked over time so as to establish the level of progress made in view of the different sector dynamics and distinct target areas,” said a source within Cabinet.

 This new system, we established, will be implemented under the Ministry of Devolution and Planning and will be launched in September.

“Through this method, the President expects that the government will achieve the objectives outlined in the Jubilee manifesto, the Medium Term Plan and Vision 2030. The focus on public engagement not only complies with constitutional stipulations, but also meaningfully engages the public in objectively tracking the targets and performance of agencies,” said our source in the Cabinet.

The process of performance evaluation, we established, will also entail a peer-review mechanism as part of the annual evaluation of performance.

Each ministry, under the leadership of the Cabinet Secretary, will participate in the cross review of performance. This is an improved version of the system used by the Africa Peer Review Mechanism framework.

“The import of this is that Cabinet Secretaries will vet other Cabinet Secretaries,” said our source.

The performance review will be based on improved access to public services, improved access to information, efficient and quality service, modernised public service, improved working conditions; and professionalism in service delivery.     

Similarly, two critical performance indicators on tracking youth and women empowerment and ease of doing business have been introduced.

 “This in line with the government’s commitment to supporting women and youth enterprises, so as to ensure that government policies such as preferences and reservations are effectively implemented. The indicator will seek to track performance on interventions towards providing an enabling environment for investment,” said a Cabinet Secretary familiar with the goings on.

Individual Cabinet Secretaries/Principal Secretaries and Accounting Officers will be assessed against these measures, the results of which will be made public.