Huge wage bills in store for counties

Nairobi, Kiambu, Nyeri and Kisumu counties will have the highest expenditure on staff salaries under the county governments.

According to a government audit of all the 47 counties, the four are among the counties with the largest numbers of civil servants.

Nairobi County leads with 32,099, according to the staff audit conducted by the Ministry of State for Public Service.

By February, the government was spending Sh20.2 billion a year in salaries for staff, enough to run the free learning programme in primary schools for two years.

Second is Nakuru with 6,546 workers.

The audit findings are contained in the “Report of Devolved Functions, Structures and Staffing for County Governments” dated May 2012.

Optimal levels

According to the document, the Public Service ministry proposes that workers in the core civil service and local authorities be as far as possible retained within those districts where they are currently working to serve the respective county governments.

The county governments were created under the Constitution promulgated in 2010 but will take effect after the next General Election expected to held next year.

“All central government and local authority staff currently deployed and those to be deployed will be deemed to be county staff,” the report says.

Ministries and departments under the guidance of the Public Service have completed work to determine the staff needed between the national and county governments.

According to the audit, most civil servants are in job groups J, K and L. These are university graduates and higher diploma staff who perform most desk jobs in the civil service.

The three groups account for 58,979 workers, nearly half of all civil servants in the counties.

Under the new county governments, civil servants are expected to work together with local authorities staff.

According to the report, the local authorities’ staff will continue to perform their work in the counties.

Where the work is currently performed by the central government and local authorities, the terms and conditions of service will be harmonised.

“This will be preceded by a comprehensive staff audit of all local authorities staff in the counties,” the report says.

Counties have fewer workers compared to those working for the civil service.

Nairobi city council has 11,490, workers who together earn Sh5.2 billion annually.

Mombasa council is second with 2,575 workers taking home Sh1 billion per year.

Local authorities workers are either appointed by the Public Service Commission or hired by the authorities themselves.

“It is expected,” the report says, “that staff from the two categories will be absorbed by the county governments based on their experience and skills relevant to manage services in the urban areas and in counties.”

Under devolved governments, the national government will set a uniform pay standard to ensure equity and harmonise the conditions of service.

During the transition, it is expected that the salaries of staff in the counties will remain the responsibility of the national government.

But after a three-year transition period, the counties are expected to have matured enough to take over their staff costs.