Kenyans express anger over Government’s extravagance

Kenyans are an angry lot who feel that there is too much largesse within the Government, while they have been left to their own devices.

This is part of strong anti-government sentiments the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) task force found when it was taking views from Kenyans.

The public feels the Government has been spending too much on office affairs instead of using public resources to serve Kenyans.

And in an attempt to tame the excesses by public officials and appease Kenyans, the task force has recommended the scrapping of sitting allowances for all government employees, including Members Parliament and members of county assemblies.

A number of parastatals, as well as regulatory authorities whose roles are duplicated, could also be scrapped or restructured.

In its report, the task force noted that Kenyans want a smaller government that invests in its people.

“The taskforce found Kenyans with strong feelings against the size of government. They wanted the burden of government to be less, money being used to serve them, to achieve value for money, the reduction of wastage and cutting down on fraud and corruption,” said the task force in its report.

The proposal to do away with sitting allowances comes even as the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) holds a conference that is looking into modalities of taming the public wage bill.

The conference yesterday heard how civil servants have devised means of earning high allowances to the extent that there are several of them serving the same purpose.

The BBI taskforce also said the Government should continue on its recruitment freeze, with the natural attrition helping tame costs while only replacing key personnel, especially technical.

The national and county governments should also undertake a joint review of their workforce and where there is a replication of roles across the two levels, do away with redundancies.

A similar review will also be undertaken for parastatals and where there is duplication of roles, the report recommends scrapping of the entity or restructuring it.

“Parastatals carrying out county functions should be either wound up or restructured. This should be synchronised with the implementation of the already completed parastatal reforms policy,” says the report.

It has also recommended the rationalisation of regulatory bodies to ensure no duplication of roles, ease transparency, affordability and prompt service.

Government-owned entities should also be rationalised, bringing under one umbrella some of their common functions.

The task force also said the Government should stick to the Public Finance Management law, which recommends that State entities spend at least 30 per cent of their budget allocation on development projects, something that many, including counties, have failed to meet.

And in line with spending more on development, the task force wants the role of SRC reviewed so that it can oversee all salary reviews and changes.

It is a proposal that might rub legislators the wrong as they have severally been at loggerheads with the SRC, with lawmakers arguing that the commission’s role does not extend to reviewing their perks.

SRC has insisted that the Constitution gives it the mandate to deal with all wages and salaries earned by public officials.

“There should be a clarification of the legal and administrative powers of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to ensure that it oversees all salary reviews and changes,” read part of the report to the released today.