Team proposes 60,000 public staff be sacked, number of leaders reduced

Budget and Appropriations Committee Chairman Mutava Musyimi (left) receives the Socio-Economic Audit of the Constitution report from Auditor General Edward Ouko in Nairobi, yesterday. [PHOTO: MOSES OMUSULA/STANDARD]

A task force has recommended that 60,000 civil servants be sacked and the number of MPs and Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) be reduced by half to lower the public wage bill.

The shocking interim report was drawn up by a team set up to find ways of reducing the cost of running the two levels of government created by the Constitution.

Reducing members of the national and county assemblies by 50 per cent would mean dropping 145 MPs and 1,110 MCAs.

The report, called the Socio-Economic Audit of the Constitution, was released yesterday in Nairobi. It blames a bloated civil service and a hiring spree in the counties for the huge cost of running the government.

The audit team chaired by Auditor General Edward Ouko proposed the Jubilee administration sacks 60,000 government employees, and give those left a hefty pay increase to create a lean and well-paid public service.

The team also asked MPs to get rid of nominated leaders in the national and county assemblies.

To achieve affirmative action in the new wards, electoral regulations would be in place to ensure voters elect a man and a woman to take of care of the constitutional requirement on gender equality.

"The benefits of encouraging equal participation of women and the building of cultural change and perceptions on women's leadership should be pursued at all cost, especially at the local level of governance," the report commissioned by the National Assembly's Budget and Appropriations Committee added.

To justify the civil service job cuts, the team explained to MPs that there was a big risk for the country and the economy after the national government's failure to cut down jobs as it transferred roles to the county governments.

poor pay

"The single largest economic and financial risk which adoption of the Constitution portends is failure of the national government to rationalise and downsize consistent with functions and structures mandated in the Constitution," the report said.

The audit team poured cold water on the scare-mongering that the public wage bill is "unsustainable" because for the first time, in a long time, it revealed that it put the wage bill at the national level at Sh281.2 billion with that of the counties being Sh71.2 billion.

"The implications are clear. The restructuring imperative impinges on the National Government and its capacity to deliver. The opportunity costs of failing to downsize are understaffing and poor pay for essential national government services such as Education and Security, crowding out of Operations & Maintenance and investment expenditures (for instance infrastructure) and excessive borrowing," the audit report added.

While there was a rise of Sh50 billion in the counties' wage bill, the audit found no evidence of a drop in the national government's. In fact, the national government's wage bill increased by Sh7 billion.

The audit team told the lawmakers the increase in the wage bill was directly linked to the disparities in pay between the top and bottom ranks of public servants because their number had not increased.

"The Government has managed to maintain a macro-economically sustainable wage cost by suppressing pay. In other words, there may be too many underpaid civil servants. The impact is therefore to be seen in the low productivity and poor performance of the civil service," the report added.

The audit team added that while the Jubilee administration was under pressure to create jobs for new graduates, the skill levels of these "labour market entrants" was poor.

The task force also proposed the abolition of the direct election of senators, and instead said the senators should be picked by special "constituent assemblies" convened for that purpose in their respective counties.

The team also asked for a constitutional review to make sure presidential candidates are allowed to vie for other slots, say MP or senator, so that if they miss out, they are still valuable in the key institutions where decisions are made.

The twin referendum push by governors and the Opposition got a boost because the team's verdict was that counties were getting very little money.

The Auditor General insisted the report was a compilation of preliminary findings and that in-depth investigation and public dialogue would now be held.

The team put up a strong argument against the nominated MCAs, saying these leaders impede the electorate's rights. They asked MPs to amend the Elections Act to make it easy for non-performing or errant members to be recalled by voters.