Concern over swelling wage bill as counties fear firing excess employees

Counties are sagging under the weight of huge wage bills after hiring excess workers.

The irregularity of the recruitment has been the subject of court cases, with some workers being sent home while others are yet to know their fate.

Vihiga, Busia, Bomet, Kakamega, Kisii, Laikipia and Murang’a have already expressed concern over their wage bills.

And despite advice that the employees be dismissed, governors are reluctant to do so.

Matters are complicated because a majority of the workers are relatives or cronies of MCAs, executives or governors.

Many are hired as Hansard reporters, sergeants-at-arms, assistants, secretaries or drivers.

In Busia, for instance, the fate of 76 excess employees is hanging in the balance following a stalemate in paying their salaries.

The workers are on a go-slow.

INCREASED STAFF BUDGET

In Vihiga, assembly clerk Josephat Musambayi was suspended in May over irregular hiring of 46 workers, increasing the House staff budget from Sh14 million to Sh20 million.

In Kisii, 300 out 400 workers hired by the assembly have been sent home.

The workers were not assigned duties for four months.

The assembly only needed 72, according to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

SRC boss Sarah Serem recently said assemblies were becoming employment bureaus instead of service providers.

“Productivity is less than 30 per cent.

“It will no longer be business as usual for departments in counties and the National Government as we seek to develop a policy on remuneration and benefits for the public service anchored on job evaluation,” she said.

According to the MCAs’ Council chairman Albert Kochei, firing staff is a political hot potato.

“Employment is very close to the heart of voters and anybody seen to be supporting retrenchment would be committing political suicide,” he said.

According to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), it has become difficult to send workers home because they were hired on the basis of tribalism or nepotism.

ONLY 17 FOLLOWED LAW

NCIC Vice-Chairperson Irene Njeri Wanyoike says of the 47 counties, only 17 followed the law when hiring staff.

“Over 60 per cent of counties have more than 90 per cent of their workers from a single community which is against the law,” she said.

In January, the Public Service Commission (PSC) said counties had irregularly hired 90,000 workers.

Commission chairman Prof Margaret Kobia said the trend threatens budgets with most of the counties choking for lack of enough funds to run key services.

But Mr Kochei Sunday told Nation that the employment was meant to fill competency lacked by workers inherited from the defunct local authorities.

“The challenge for most county assemblies has been how we retain former local authority staff whose competence does not match the status of the Houses,” said the Elgeyo-Marakwet Speaker.

So dire is the situation that the Commission on Revenue Allocation in June rejected a plea by MCAs to be allowed to hire up to six assistants to work in their offices.

BILLIONS FOR MCAs' ASSISTANTS

The commission instead allowed them to employ only three assistants including drivers, a proposal that will cost taxpayers Sh1.1 billion.

The plea by the MCAs prompted the Senate to approve Sh2.5 billion to help MCAs hire the aides.

Despite warnings from the SRC and the PSC, the assemblies have gone ahead to hire the staff.

Governors said the problem is caused by assemblies that hire more than they need and later push the executive to shoulder the burden.

Mr Wycliffe Oparanya, the chairman of the Finance Committee in the Council of Governors, said the situation had further been worsened by fact that counties were expected to absorb workers from the National Government and the defunct council authorities.

“In Kakamega, we had proposed a send-off package for some 2,000 workers because you cannot just send them away so inhumanly,” he said.

His Kisii counterpart James Ongwae also accused assemblies of burdening the executive with the excess workers, saying such employment was against the law.

TRANSITION CRISIS

“It is wrong to associate the problem with the executive. The genesis of these problems is when county assembly service boards decide to go against the law and hire more people for personal gains,” he said.

But Mr Kochei said the county service boards were partly to blame for the mess.

In August, the Bomet County Assembly rejected a bid by Governor Isaac Ruto to send home 300 excess workers, calling the move inhumane.

“The fact that ward representatives have assistants is constitutional. Every member of the assembly has an aide and a ward officer paid for by the CRA,” Mr Kochei told the Nation.

In her report, Prof Kobia said the problem, if not resolved soon, could plunge counties into a transition crisis.

“It is a thorny issue as most counties have gone ahead and hired staff on positions that were already filled. Parliament has to come up with regulations on how to handle the issue,” she said.