Ruto's civil service reform plan
Mr Eliud Owalo
President William Ruto's administration has embarked on an ambitious plan to set targets and deliverables for civil servants as part of radical reforms in the public service.
The two-year-old Kenya Kwanza administration - recently held hostage by protesting youths over poor service delivery - will have all cabinet secretaries commit to a set of government targets to be achieved within a specified period.
For two weeks from Monday, a team of top officials from the Executive Office of the President will hold meetings with CSs and Principal Secretaries to set targets for various government priority projects.
The public service reforms include the elimination of ghost workers on the government payroll.
"The Cabinet considered a number of policy proposals aimed at supporting the implementation of various government programmes and flagship initiatives.
Ghost workers
These measures, as announced by the President during the swearing-in ceremony of the reconstituted Cabinet, include the implementation of a Unified Personnel Identification System to eradicate 'ghost worker' payroll fraud at all levels of government, including constitutional commissions," reads a release from Tuesday's Cabinet meeting.
An annual report by the Public Service Commission (PSC) for the 2022/2023 financial year revealed that there are a total of 19,467 ghost workers in the national government. According to the report, there are 12,535 ghost workers in government ministries, 4,558 in state-owned enterprises and 2,287 in public universities. There are 100 ghost workers at State House.
To improve service delivery, President Ruto's administration is seeking to institutionalise performance management in the civil service by strengthening the accountability framework.
Deputy Chief of Staff in the Executive Office of the President responsible for Performance and Delivery Management in Government, Mr Eliud Owalo, and Secretary to Cabinet, Ms Mercy Wanjau, will from Monday engage CSs and PSs in the negotiation of performance contracts for their ministries and provincial departments. The move is aimed at improving service delivery and accelerating implementation of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).
Dr Ruto rode to power on lofty promises to create jobs for millions of unemployed youth, prioritise the needs of low-income earners and reduce the cost of living. Ahead of the 9 August 2022 elections, President Ruto promised to improve the living standards of the downtrodden through a bottom-up economic model.
According to Mr Owalo, the aim of the two-week meetings with Cabinet and Principal Secretaries is to validate and ratify performance contracts, ascertain the level of automation of government services, assess the implementation of presidential directives and commitments made at the Nanyuki and Naivasha Cabinet retreats.
He said the ultimate objective of the exercise is to hold all public servants accountable for results, run a paperless government to eliminate revenue leakages and improve efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery to the people.
During Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, President Ruto's administration pledged to "promote accountability and transparency in the management of public affairs as a strategy to fight corruption".
"For all priority government projects and programmes, we want to have clear lines of responsibility, objectively verifiable expected outcomes and measurable output indicators and time-bound targets against which everyone can be held accountable.
All these will be enshrined in performance contracts that individuals will sign and commit to beforehand and on the basis of which they will be held accountable for results at the end of the period of activity," said Mr Owalo.
Some of the pre-election promises have been fulfilled, some are ongoing, while others have been broken or stalled, based on an analysis of the Kenya Kwanza manifesto and the government document detailing achievements over the past two years.
