Efficiency unit to be set up in PM’s office

• Raila says unit will act as a link with other organs to ensure that Government affairs are run efficiently.
• The PM’s delivery unit would act as a go-between with other organs to ensure that Government affairs were run efficiently.
• PM says that the current political dispensation required every Government organ to assume a new way of working to ensure service delivery.
  

A unit to drive efficiency in the delivery of public service is being established at the Office of the Prime Minister.

PM Raila Odinga made the disclosure on Tuesday and said that the working relations in the Grand Coalition Government were beginning to show with the expected announcement of clear structures to guide its operations.

Mr Odinga said that all ministries and departments must meet their targets and explained that the PM’s delivery unit would act as a go-between with other organs to ensure that Government affairs were run efficiently.

Understaffed

Currently, the PM’s office is understaffed and could not meet the demands of coordinating functions of Government bestowed on it by the National Accord.

“This office is understaffed and we are working on structures that will enable it to deal with its duties,” he said.

Mr Odinga, who has been on a tour of ministries, government departments and parastatals in a bid to inject a new sense of efficiency, was speaking at his Treasury offices after discussing the operations of the Coalition Government with former Norwegian PM Kjell Magne Bondevik.

The session, which was attended by Cabinet ministers John Michuki, Moses Wetang’ula, Dalmas Otieno and Wycliffe Oparanya, took stock of the four months of the Grand Coalition Government that brought together President Kibaki’s PNU and Mr Odinga’s ODM in March after two months of post-election violence.

Mr Odinga said the current political dispensation required every Government organ to assume a new way of working in which service delivery was the hallmark.

Mr Bondevik proposed that a clear structure that spelt the top organ of the coalition, disciplinary measures and a well-defined linkage with Parliament should be put in place to give the coalition a basis of sustainability.

But the former Norwegian premier said an Official Opposition in Parliament was not necessary under the present arrangement.

“You cannot be in Government and in the Opposition at the same time,” he said.