Kenya's civil service faces several staffing challenges with some departments having bloated workforce while others face acute staff shortage. In short, there’s a crisis.
A new audit has unearthed cases in more than 10 agencies that either have excess staff or suffer serious shortages.
The civil service is also staring at a succession crisis with some state departments thronged by soon-to-be pensioned.
At the Gender department, for instance, the more than 46 per cent of the workforce are older than 50 years.
“This indicates poor succession planning as services offered by staff in critical areas will be affected as the most experienced staff exit the service,” Auditor General Nancy Gathungu said.
Cases of irregular promotions have also featured in the latest review, as well as instances of officers acting beyond the stipulated six months.
The Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission has been put on the spot for promoting nine staff without any evidence the process was competitive.
The same audit has also flagged cases of more than 700 excess staff at various state departments and agencies.
This comes at a time when there are concerns about the wage bill in the civil service.
Top on the list is the Roads department, which had 424 staff during the review for the year ending June 30, 2023.
Whereas the Roads department has an approved staff of 236 members across all cadres, the actual number was 658, leading to an over-establishment.
“In the circumstance, the management was in breach of the law,” Gathungu said in the latest review.
Similar instances have been flagged at the Energy department where the review unearthed 98 excess staffers, amid queries of an unexplained extra Sh13 million spent on salaries.
Whereas the department’s approved count is 159 members of staff – technical and support staff, it had 257 members of staff.
Gathungu reports that she was not satisfied by the explanation that the excess numbers followed a review of the department’s organisational structure.
It has emerged that the ministry appealed the staff complement of 159 as set by the Public Service Commission in 2021 but is yet to get a response.
“The state department appealed the decision on September 27, 2021, but no response has been received by the ministry as at the time of audit in December 2023,” Gathungu said.
The Water Department was also found with 95 excess staff and cited for breaching the law.
It processed the salaries and allowances of 525 officers against an approved staff establishment of 430 officers.
The audit has further flagged an excess of 68 workers at the Higher Education department and 19 others at the Wildlife department – mostly support staff.
While the Wildlife department is stuffed with the excess support staff, a shortage of technical staff has been pointed out by the auditor general.
Gathungu reported that the department had only 11 technical staff out of the required 50, saying the situation affects service delivery.
“In the circumstances, failure to employ and fill the approved establishment may negatively affect service delivery by the State Department,” she said.
For the Higher Education unit, the department should have 116 staff but is operating with 184 staffers.
Further, the Department did not have in place annual human resource plans as required by the Human Resource Policies and Procedures Manual for the Public Service, 2016.
The shipping and Maritime department had 11 extra staff, with the auditor concluding that the value of the excess staff could not be confirmed.
A review of the department’s staff establishment revealed it had 15 cadres with 104 members in post, yet only 93 were approved.
The department also has an officer acting as CEO of Bandari Maritime Academy but is past the mandatory retirement age of 60 years.
The officer was to exit the public service on July 1, 2022, but was promoted and appointed on local terms by the Public Service, eliciting the query.
“As at the time of audit in November 2023, the said officer was still the acting Director/CEO of the Academy. This exceeded the statutory duration provided for in the Public Service Commission Act, of 2017,” Gathungu said.
East African Community Affairs department had eight departments overstaffed by 41 members, at a time it also suffered a shortage of 82 staffers across the board.
The auditor established that some state agencies had not filled vacancies, denying more than 370 people job opportunities.
Instances were flagged at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission where the commission was yet to fill 296 vacancies and at the office of the Registrar of Political Parties where 80 posts remained unfilled.
At IEBC, the commission was called out for failing to recruit 30 county accountants, 32 county supply chain management assistants, 30 senior elections officers and 19 assistant elections officers, among others.
On shortages, the State Law Office had 602 unfilled posts, the National Lands Commission 671 and the Business Registration Service 62.
The latter was found to have two officers who had served in an acting capacity for more than six months.
“Although the payment of the acting allowance had stopped, the officers were still acting and the positions had not been substantively filled at the close of the financial year.”
“In the circumstances, BRS may not achieve its core mandate of administering laws relating to incorporation, registration, operation and management of companies, partnerships and firms,” the auditor said.
The findings come against the backdrop of revelations about how the public service is fraught with cases of ghost workers and civil servants with fake academic papers.
The PSC revealed in its latest compliance report an excess of 19,467 workers of which 975 employees were at State House and New Kenya Cooperative Creameries.
Six organisations were found with high disparities, an excess of more than 100 members of staff, compared to those recorded in the staff register.
State House had an unexplained workforce of 483, while New KCC had 492. “The unexplained variance could create room for unauthorised recruitment of staff,” the PSC said.
The commission directed the state agencies to audit their registers to establish the reasons for the variance in the number of staff against the filled vacancies.
Ministries and state departments accounted for the highest at 12,535, followed by state corporations and Semi-Autonomous Government Agencies at 4,558 and 2,287 in public universities.
The 2023 review revealed there were 58 cases at the constitutional commissions and 29 at statutory commissions and authorities.
Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria recently announced plans to put up biometric systems to weed out 'ghost workers'.