Two years after President Uhuru Kenyatta promised to tame the spiralling wage bill, evidence on the ground suggests that nothing has been achieved in that regard. The outgoing chairperson of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), Sarah Serem, has raised the red flag that while the wage bill stood at Sh627 billion in the 2016/2017 financial year, it is expected rise to Sh650 billion in the 2017/2018 financial year.
In 2015, the Government set out to reduce the huge wage bill by laying off 60,000 civil servants. In 2014, the President and his deputy signalled they would take a 20 per cent pay cut and asked Cabinet and their principal secretaries take a 10 per cent pay cut.
It is unclear whether that was effected. What is not in doubt is that the wage bill is occasioned by huge salaries paid to top executives and politicians. The sad thing is that a world report indicated that the Government had resorted to financing public wages through debt.
On several occasions, SRC has attempted to reduce the huge salaries and allowances paid to State officers, but has faced a lot of resistance from legislators, particularly the 11th Parliament, which insisted on determining its own pay package and allowances, some of which were fraudulently claimed through document falsification. Since their election in August, the current MPs have already taken home Sh650.4 million in pay alone.
President Kenyatta’s pledge during the 2017 State of the Nation address in March that the next batch of leaders coming into office after the August 8 elections would have to take a pay cut should be actualised.
A huge public wage bill is unsustainable in a developing economy that is in dire need of development investment. Indeed, with the high levels of inefficiency and lethargy within government circles, there is no justification for the huge wage bill. When a country spends half of the revenue it collects on salaries and allowances, growth and development stagnate.
The bottom line is that the Government, if it is serious about moving this country to the next level of development, should borrow a leaf from the private sector, where pay is linked to performance.
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