Cabinet to set limit on civil servants’ salaries
The Cabinet on Thursday agreed to set a limit to salaries of civil servants at national and county government levels to free funds for development projects.
The blow to public servants pushing for higher pay came as the Cabinet asked the Treasury to set aside more money to enable the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to effectively supervise the next elections.
These are among a raft of issues that the Cabinet wants included as priorities in the next Budget, whose policy statement was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday by Finance minister Njeru Githae as required by the Constitution.
Cabinet appears to have been taken aback by the high increase in the country’s wage bill.
It had risen by Sh175 million after doctors, nurses and teachers were awarded better pay during the financial year that ends in June.
“The Cabinet resolved that there should be ceilings on the percentage of the budget that goes to salaries. It was pointed out there was need to have more funds for actual service delivery and development in order to avoid a culture of consumerism at both the central and county government levels,” said a Presidential Press Service statement after Thursday's Cabinet meeting.
The meeting, chaired by President Kibaki at State House, was categorical that salaries at both national and county governments should be rationalised to ensure that more funds are set aside for development projects.
They appealed to various civil servants’ unions to “be sensitive” when pushing for higher pay.
“Cabinet appealed to public servants to be sensitive to the plight of taxpayers when they make demands for salary increases,” says the PPS statement.
However, the Cabinet endorsed allocation of money to employ permanently teachers on contracts and hire more teachers to reduce the staff deficit that now stands at 70,000 at both primary and secondary school levels.
The Cabinet agreed on the need to hire more police officers to provide security in the next elections.
“The (new) officers should be adequately trained ahead of the general elections,” said the Cabinet ministers.
