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{
"id": 253827,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/253827/?format=api",
"text_counter": 129,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Akaranga",
"speaker_title": "The Minister of State for Public Service",
"speaker": {
"id": 299,
"legal_name": "Moses Epainitous Akaranga",
"slug": "moses-akaranga"
},
"content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, several hon. Members have been asking me about the pay policy in the public service that I launched last month. That is why I feel obliged to make a Ministerial Statement, so that hon. Members can understand what the pay policy is all about. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in January, 2006, the Cabinet approved the pay policy for the public service. The policy was prepared through a participatory and consultative process under the overall coordination of my Ministry, and seeks to address and guide remuneration issues in the Public Service. I officially launched the policy on Friday, 24th March, 2006. The policy covers organisations in the public sector that are wholly or partly dependant on the Exchequer for their operations. With the exclusion of the armed forces, those organisations employ a total of 657,400 personnel. The compensation package which includes the basic pay, monetary and non-monetary benefits and performance related works constitute; a wage bill of about Kshs107 billion annually. The need for policy formulation in that area was driven by lack of an explicit, coherent and codified pay policy for the Public Service and hence, undue reliance on a variety of official documents such as the Code of Regulations, the Pensions Act, Cap.189, recommendations of adhoc commissions and committees, Government circulars and personnel general letters for policy guidance. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the absence of a pay policy directly and indirectly resulted in the following observed weaknesses in the management of the public service. (i) A Recurrent Expenditure that is skewed towards personal emoluments at the expense of operations and maintenance. (ii) A blotted Public Service that is characterised by low pay and poor retention of technical and managerial personnel. (iii) Proliferation of allowances and fringe benefits, partly as a supplementary to the low pay. (iv) Highly compressed and overlapping salary scales and wage disparities among the various sub-sectors, especially among persons holding comparable jobs with similar duties and responsibilities. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the pay policy addresses those weaknesses by defining the principles for determining pay for Public Service employees with the aim of attracting, retaining and motivating them for better service delivery. These principles are:- (i) Equal pay for equal work. That will be measured against the contents of the job as determined by a job evaluation and regrading exercise, skills, competence and responsibilities associated with the position. (ii) Capacity to attract, retain and adequately motivate personnel with requisite skills. That will be done through compensation levels that are competitive in comparison to those enjoyed in other sub-sectors of the Public Service, and with the appropriate labour market that will stand competitiveness under a compensation structure that is linked to the activity, accomplished task, 422 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 6, 2006 responsibilities and achieved results, so as to maintain and sustain a stimulated public service. (iii) An affordable and sustainable wage bill. The pay policy will be sustained through a prudent management of the wage bill in the economy, including the implementation of measures such as staff right-sizing, linking the pay to economic performance and improving the management of the recurrent budget. (iv) Improved transparency of the compensation structure to improve links between pay and performance. The use of non-salary benefits in the public service compensation structure will be minimised by consolidating remunerative allowances---"
}