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"id": 91233,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/91233/?format=api",
"text_counter": 203,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Major Sugow",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Ministry of State for Public Service",
"speaker": {
"id": 142,
"legal_name": "Aden Ahmed Sugow",
"slug": "aden-sugow"
},
"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, as you are aware, the overall goal of my Ministry is to provide strategic leadership, advice and guidance to the public service on the human resource management and development. In this light, my Ministry is expected to guide public service management to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in delivery of public services, management and development of human resource in the public service to support efficient and effective delivery of services; comprehensive restructuring to ensure that the Ministry and department and public organizations and institutions function effectively and optimal utilization of available human resources. The overall policy objective is positioning the Ministry to play its role in the attainment of the objectives of Kenya Vision 2030. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, to achieve this mandate, my Ministry requires adequate budgetary allocation. In the current Budget, a number of important proposals were left out in the Estimates of expenditure 2010/2011. I now want to report on the performance of the sub-sector and come to the budgetary issues later. My Ministry has embarked on various programmes to fulfil its mandate and meet demands of stakeholders and customers. In the last financial year, training and capacity building which is necessary to improve performance and to achieve the objective of Vision 2030 was undertaken in the public service. A comprehensive recruitment and training policy to provide a framework for effective recruitment and training in the public service has been developed and it is under implementation. The objective is to ensure continuous upgrading of competencies, knowledge, skills and attitudes of all staff for improved performance. Training has been transformed to demand-driven model where employees are trained on the skills and competencies that are of high demand in the public service. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, public service performance at the institutional level is being addressed through the performance contracting process that has seen Permanent Secretaries and heads of departments in Ministries and departments placed under performance contracts. To complement this process and more importantly to enhance performance at the individual staff level, a revised performance appraisal system is under implementation as an integral part of human resource reforms. Performance appraisal system emphasizes participatory performance targeting and is linked to other human resource management and development initiatives and processes, including staff development, career progression, recruitment, placement, incentives and sanctions. Performance appraisal system will in due course, provide a basis for performance related pay. My Ministry administers the Integrated Payroll and Personal Data Base (IPPD) which is used to process salary in the Civil Service and for complement control. In addition, a team has been put in place to develop and maintain a Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) for the Civil Service. The HRMIS encompasses all the major functions of human resource management and will be interfaced with pension system so as to expedite the process of pensions management. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, a contributory pension scheme where officers will contribute a percentage of their basic salary towards their pension scheme with the Government contributing a percentage for each employee has been introduced. It aims to ease the burden of rising pension expenditure occasioned by the increased number of pensioners and improved salaries for civil servants. The contributory pension scheme is also expected to improve benefits payable to the employees on retirement. Moreover, the new contributory pension scheme will be portable and thus allowing for employees to write to transfer pension benefits credits from a former employer to a current one. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, one of the key concerns of the public service reforms has been the disparities in the remuneration levels within the Public Service. To address the disparities, a pay policy for the public service is under implementation to provide a framework for determining competitive, harmonized and sustainable remuneration across the entire service. The pay policy defines the principle for determining pay for public servants through a transparent remuneration system that also links pay and performance as well as meets the objective to attract, retain and motivate staff to better service delivery. The pay policy has guided the recent competitive harmonized and sustainable remuneration across the entire service for core civil service; the Teachers Service Commission Secretariat and the Judiciary. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, despite the positive achievements made so far, I would like to assure this House that I will even put more efforts towards transforming the public service to a modern and competitive one as envisaged in Vision 2030. In particular, I will take measures to ensure that areas of success are upscaled further to greater heights of achievement. During 2010/2011, I intend to continue with efforts to improve service delivery in the entire public service. This cannot be done without adequate financial support. It is for this reason that I would like to mention a few areas that require the support of this House. The Code of Regulations stipulates that all staff are eligible for transport allowance provided that they are not granted Government transport. This is in line with the implementation of the pay and benefits harmonized policy which enhances the welfare of employees. A request to partly implement commuter allowance totaling Kshs5.7 billion was made to Treasury. The requested funds have not been allocated in the 2010/2011 financial year Printed Estimates of expenditure. However, after further consultations the Treasury has approved Kshs2 billion for this financial year allowing Kshs3.7 billion for 2011/2012 and 2013/2014 financial years. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, my Ministry carried out rationalization and harmonization of hardship areas and allowances to restore parity of treatment and equity among public servants. The proposed hardship allowance is no longer paid as a percentage of basic pay but is based on the classification of the hardship area, irrespective of job group or marital status. A request to facilitate implementation of hardship allowance totaling Kshs3,767,601,600 has been made to Treasury but no funds have been included in the financial year 2010/2011. My Ministry will carry out a job evaluation exercise in the public service. Job evaluation is an analysis carried out on jobs to determine pay levels and job worthiness, to remove disparities and set up pay structures across the Civil Service. The evaluation will provide job analysis for all job classifications currently in the Civil Service. My Ministry requested Kshs40 million to undertake the job evaluation exercise. However, only Kshs18 million has been provided in the 2010/2011 Printed Estimates of expenditure. Let me now turn to the issue of medical insurance for civil servants. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, a proposal had been made to reform the structure of medical benefits in the public service by introducing a comprehensive medical insurance scheme. The proposed comprehensive medical insurance scheme will replace the current system of paying the staff graduated monthly outpatient medical allowance and ex-gratia assistance for in-patient hospitalization. Funding for the scheme was to be sourced outside the Ministryâs ceiling and was submitted to the Treasury. The scheme which will cost Kshs4.879 billion has not been allocated funds in the Printed Estimates of expenditure and revenue for 2010/2011. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Government Training Institutes (GTIs) play a leading role in public service training and capacity building. The core functions of GTIs are training and capacity building, research and consultancy services, including evaluation of training programmes. The GTIs that fall within the Ministry include; Mombasa, Baringo, Embu and Matuga. The objective has been to transform the GTIs to provide high level quality training programmes to meet the needs of the public service for the attainment of the Kenya Vision 2030. My Ministry has been making efforts to modernize and expand the facilities in these existing GTIs for which we requested Kshs627 million and were granted Kshs371,469,000 in the Development Vote. The Ministry is also in the process of establishing a fifth GTI. The Ministry requires Kshs500 million to develop the institute. However, funds for this have not been allocated. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, let me turn to the Training Revolving Fund. To support training and capacity building and employees self-development schemes, a training revolving fund to supplement Government efforts to offer advanced professional training for career development for public service staff has been established. My Ministry requested Kshs200 million to operationalise the scheme while only Kshs95,979,360 was granted to the Kenya National School of Government. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Kenya Vision 2030 strategy envisions the establishment of a Kenya National School of Government to spearhead the creation of a strategic vehicle for developing Kenyaâs human services which, in turn, will spearhead development over the next two decades and achieve set targets. The school will inculcate public service values and ethics as well as enhance public service leadership. The Kenya School of Government is a flagship project for the Kenya Vision 2030. This initiative which will cost Kshs750 million has not been allocated funds in the current Budget. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Treasury has put an embargo on any new recruitment for the next two years. The requirement that any recruitment must go through the Cabinet for approval before recruiting officers including filling of posts left due to natural attrition makes it difficult for the growth of the Civil Service. The unfilled authorized posts created through natural attrition or retirement of officers will increase workload on the remaining officers and may negatively compromise service delivery. Recruitment of officers to fill key posts and to ensure sound succession management will not be possible in the face of non-existent budgetary support. On Personnel Emolument Budgeting, the shift from budgeting for authorized posts to budgeting for in-posts only is affecting the Civil Service because its manpower has started to shrink and to, ultimately, affect public service human resource management. On the Technical Assistance Programme, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the MoU between the Government of Southern Sudan and Kenya created a technical support programme. The technical support to the Government of Southern Sudan is a programme that aims to build capacity and assist the Government of Southern Sudan to come up with structures of governance to enable it operate independently. The Ministry of State for Public Service developed a framework of co-operation in 2007. Through this programme, senior members of the Government of Southern Sudan management have been trained at the Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA). Other offices from the same Government of Southern Sudan will be trained. This financial year, the Government has allocated Kshs150 million for that cooperation. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the main objective of the Pan-African Conference of Ministers responsible for public service, public sector management and Civil Service administration is to enhance the delivery of public services and good governance. The Sixth Pan-African Conference of Ministers of Public Service or Civil Service took place on 13th and 15th of October 2008 in Midrand, South Africa. The conference was attended by member States, representatives of Africa and international organizations and invited experts. During the meeting, Kenya was selected as the chair and hence was tasked to host the secretariat offices. The next conference of Ministers will be held in Nairobi in September to October 2010. The Ministry requested Kshs60 million for the conference and Kshs10 million for the secretariat operations. The Treasury granted the Kshs60 million only. My Ministry requested for a total of Kshs1, 487,425 under Recurrent Vote but the Treasury granted Kshs1, 274,152 only, which I will use to continue implementation of the most critical programmes. I beg to move and request Mr. Musila to second."
}