139 ex-ECK staff rejected State jobs’ offer

By Peter Opiyo

Public Service Minister Dalmas Otieno said 139 officers of the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) rejected the offer to join the Civil Service.

Mr Otieno, however, told members that 411 of 550 former employees of the commission have been redeployed to various Government departments.

The Cabinet made the decision to have them deployed.

But Kioni doubted the pay they were given was equal to what the commission used to pay them.

Responding to questions by Mr Jeremiah Kioni (Ndaragwa, PNU), Dalmas, however, said the Government did not force any former employee to take up the jobs if they felt dissatisfied.

He pointed out that the Government was ready to compensate them for their services at ECK.

"ECK was an independent commission and engaged employees on certain salaries. If the employees are not satisfied in the public service, they can be compensated," Dalmas told the House.

Kioni, however, called for the postponement of the question to give members time to peruse details tabled by the minister on employees’ salaries and grades. The matter will be revisited next week.

The ECK was disbanded last December and an Independent Interim Electoral Commission to replace it was approved by Parliament yesterday.

Recommended

Separately, the Pending Bills Closing Committee (PBCC) has recommended to Government that only one per cent of claims – Sh100 million — are payable.

This emerged even as President Kibaki last evening extended the mandate of the PBCC to enable the team complete its work.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Mr Uhuru Kenyatta made the request for extension of time on behalf of the committee during a meeting with the President at State House, Nairobi.

According to a statement from the Presidential Press Service, the Committee led by its chairman D G Kariuki, had met the Head of State to present the third volume of the pending Bills report.

The report gives details of historical domestic arrears evaluated by the committee and recommendations on the way forward.

The committees’ recommendations include payment of genuine claims, recovery from the claimants of moneys found to be owed to the Government, and investigations, prosecution and blacklisting of contractors who have been defrauding the Government.

The PBCC was appointed by the President on January 14, 2005 to bring to an end the problem of pending Bills, and it presented its first and second reports on May 5, 2006 and June 29, 2007.