Civil servants to be shuffled in changes to boost efficiency

Public servants are facing the possibility of mass transfers and potential job losses after the government embarked on a programme to re-organise government workers at both the national and county levels.

Under the far-reaching changes, public servants will be moved to understaffed ministries or departments while others will be transferred to work under county governments. Employees of State corporations, especially those whose responsibilities have been devolved, are also likely to be transferred.

Launching the programme on Monday, Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru and the chairman of the Public Service Commission, Prof Margaret Kobia went out of their way to allay fears that the changes will result in job cuts.

“The purpose of rationalisation is not to retrench people,” Prof Kobia said at a media briefing. “It will enable us know who requires to be redeployed or retrained.” (READ: Govt sets up team to review all public staff)

However, Mr Tom Odege, who is the secretary-general of the Union of Kenya Civil Servants, said no worker would be retrenched against their will.

“We are trying to encourage a situation where public servants retire voluntarily instead of being retrenched against their will,” said Mr Odege on the sidelines of Monday’s event at Harambee House, Nairobi. “This will entail a budget to cater for an attractive package to those willing to retire voluntarily.”

The re-organisation, said Prof Kobia, would be completed by November and recommendations implemented before the end of the current financial year.

Already, the rules on how the secretariat will be set up and managed have been gazetted.

Ms Waiguru said the aim of the changes will be to review functions and staffing at the two levels of government against their respective mandates.

“The rationalisation will involve… undertaking human resource and skills audit, staff redeployment and transfers where necessary,” she said. “Ultimately, the implementation of the programme will facilitate efficient and effective utilisation of the resources and build on the ongoing reform agenda of transforming the public service.”

IMPROVE COMPETENCE

Kisii Governor James Ongwae, who represented the Council of Governors at the launch, also maintained that the re-organisation would yield positive results such as promotions and retraining of staff to improve their competence.

“Once the exercise is complete, there will be redeployment both horizontally and vertically between the national and county levels as well as within the county governments,” he said.

Ms Waiguru said the programme would be implemented with “utmost professionalism” and that it would comply with all the necessary legal and constitutional requirements.

“A redress mechanism has been established for public servants or any other stakeholder aggrieved by the programme,” she said, revealing that a circular detailing how the programme will be carried out had already been sent to civil servants.

“You can see from the representation here that this is an all-inclusive process, you can see the civil servants union, the county governments, the SRC, the public service and even the CIC are all represented in the team. We hope this will ensure the exercise is not politicised,” she said.

It is estimated that there are 70,000 public servants at the national government and a similar number in the 47 county governments.