The Public Service Commission has proposed to reinstate a set of allowances for civil servants that could trigger a fresh row with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
The PSC wants the public officers reimbursed for expenses incurred directly or indirectly in the execution of their duties.
The new proposal to compensate public officers for services rendered above their job description could reinstate allowances that SRC had abolished.
The PSC wants civil servants paid house, commuter, hardship, leave, entertainment, extraneous, and acting allowances.
Also to be reinstated is the special duty, transfer, daily subsistence, meals, and overtime allowances as well as field and baggage allowances.
The draft Human Resources Policies and Procedures Manual, 2023 has reinstated allowances including those the SRC had removed from the civil service.
The PSC has invited public views on the document, which sets terms and conditions of service for civil servants and other public officers.
According to the proposed policy, all officers would be eligible for house allowance based on their grades.
Commuter allowances would be paid to all officers who are not provided with government transport.
“The rates of the allowances will be determined by the government from time to time,” the policy reads.
The commission restated that officers who use government vehicles to commute from office to their house yet earn the allowance would be punished.
The PSC has also proposed to retain entertainment allowance for officers in job groups T, U and V.
Officers in the category by the nature of their duties provide hospitality and entertain their official guests.
“A non-accountable monthly entertainment allowance shall be paid as may be determined by the government from time to time,” the policy reads.
Officers who undertake extra responsibilities in addition to their normal duties, therefore working more hours, would continue earning extra allowances.
The state employer wants meal allowances paid to officers travelling on duty within the country but are not required to spend a night away from the parent duty station.
The commission that recruits public servants says it would pay other undefined allowances to different categories of public officers “in various circumstances”.
“Such allowances shall be determined and communicated from time to time,” the Antony Muchiri-led commission says in the draft policy document.
A wage bill conference held in June cited uncontrolled allowances as drivers of the country’s wage bill crisis.
Kenya’s wage bill hit Sh1.1 trillion as of June 30, 2023, and was attributed to numerous allowances, poor controls in payroll management and public service culture.
The wage bill crisis has been worsened by a budget deficit, forcing the Kenya Kwanza administration to order a freeze on new jobs.
At the meeting hosted by SRC, stakeholders raised concerns that there were numerous and disparate types of allowances in the civil service.
The forum thus resolved that all public institutions should adhere to the salary and allowances structures advised by the SRC.
To address the wage bill crisis, the SRC in 2022 restructured allowances payable to state and public officers.
In the changes, some of the allowances such as entertainment were abolished while others were merged.
In an advisory, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission reduced the allowances payable to civil servants from 247 to five.
The SRC stated that from April 30, 2022, state workers were to only earn house, commuter, job-related, task-related and labour market adjustment allowances.
When abolishing the entertainment allowance, the commission said there were no objective criteria to determine the cadres of staff whose duties require them to provide hospitality or entertainment.
In a subsequent advisory, the salaries agency also capped allowances at 40 per cent of a state or public officer’s pay.
On medical allowance, public service institutions were required to procure comprehensive medical insurance cover whose limit was to be set by the SRC.
In the alternative, state agencies were to provide an in-house medical facility for their staff.
For responsibility allowance, SRC converted the perks to extraneous allowances or social responsibility allowance – for eligible persons.
The commission directed that accommodation, night, night out, out of station, per diem and maintenance allowances be paid as daily subsistence allowance.
Mileage and motor vehicle allowances — paid to officers to compensate for the use of their personal vehicles— were to be paid out as transport claims.
At that time, SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich directed that all state agencies classify all allowances they paid out into five broad categories.
The commission directed that allowances payable to public officers shall not be used for purposes of computing pension or gratuity.
The SRC said facilitative allowances paid to public service officers for working outside their duty station would be paid at the same rate across the board.
To avoid duplication, allowances that were paid for similar purposes but had different names were merged and renamed.
The PSC’s proposal is thus likely to trigger a fresh dispute with SRC and President William Ruto's administration if implemented as laid down in the draft policy.
But a source at the SRC said there was no cause for alarm at the moment as the proposals were still in the draft stage.
The official said that since there was room to wiggle during public participation, the SRC would give its input and wait for the outcome.
“We will only have a problem if they are carried as proposed. We will take part in public participation and give our input.
“Our allowances guideline is known and expects that every public entity would operate within the legal framework set by the commission,” the source said.
The SRC has opposed similar attempts by Members of Parliament and judges to set their own perks or determine their pay.
The salaries agency has held that it is the institution with the “exclusive mandate to set and regularly review the remuneration and benefits for all state officers.”
The SRC in responding to such attempts says it has set, reviewed, and advised the applicable allowances in the public service.
When SRC proposed regulations that would have seen it determine perks for civil servants, the Public Service Commission protested.
“The SRC cannot give itself powers through regulations that exceed their constitutional powers and functions,” the commission said.
Together with its parliamentary counterpart, the commission said the role of the SRC on public servants' pay is only advisory.
The Judicial Service Commission and the Teachers Service Commission have also opposed bids by the SRC to determine terms of service for officers under their purview.
Last year, the Delegated Legislation Committee of the National Assembly threw out regulations by the SRC through which it sought to regulate salaries.
The draft regulations were rejected on the basis that the SRC did not conduct proper public participation on the same.