• A team has been formed to negotiate performance parameters with CSs and PSs
• The two-week exercise starts on today and will run for two-weeks
Image: HANDOUT
President William Ruto's administration has started committing all civil servants to performance targets to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the public service.
The rigorous process, which starts today, will run for two-weeks.
During the 14 days, ministries validate and ratify performance contracts that will be used to gauge performance of all public servants.
The targets and deliverables are aligned with the key pillars of Ruto's Bottom-Up Transformation Agenda (BETA) plan.
The performance management outcome will thus form the primary basis for assessing performance in all government ministries and departments.
Ministries found to have performed below par will incur sanctions, while the state shall reward those who meet targets.
Already, an eight-member team has been formed to negotiate performance parameters with CSs and PSs in all the ministries.
The team will be led by Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the President Eliud Owalo, who is responsible for performance and delivery management in government, and Secretary to the Cabinet Mercy Wanjau.
Speaking to the Star, Owalo said it will no longer be business as usual, adding that government employees will be held accountable.
“Ordinarily, people will deliver what is inspected, not what is expected,” he said.
“This is the rationale for inspecting perfomance by institutionalising perfomance management in the public service, with performance contracting at the centre of it.
“That is why for all priority government projects and programmes, we want to have clear responsibility centres; objectively verifiable expected outputs and measurable output indicators; and time-bound targets on the basis of which everybody can be held to account.”
Other members of the team are PSs Idris Dakota (Cabinet Affairs), Prof Julius Bitok (E-Citizen in charge of Digitisation), Dr Jane Kiringai (Head of International Development Partners Coordination Unit) and Raphael Owino (Director General of Public Debt Management, National Treasury).
The team also has James Warui (Inspector General of State Coorperations) and Joshua Mwiranga (Principal Administrative Secretary for Performance Management).
The team will be meeting with the Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries in all ministries to agree on the deliverables within their dockets for the next one year.
The Owalo-Wanjau led team will also assess implementation of presidential directives as well as efficacy in the utilisation of donor funding.
This comes at a time Ruto’s broad-based Cabinet has resolved to weed out all ghost workers from the government payroll, a move meant to save millions of taxpayers’ money siphoned through through an exaggerated wage bill.
Both Auditor General Nancy Gathungu and the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o termed the ballooning wage bill in the country unsustainable.
According to a schedule seen by the Star, the eight-member team will today camp at Kilimo House, where they will hold meetings with Agriculture CS Andrew Karanja and his PSs to agree on the parameters.
Later in the afternoon, they will meet Co-Operatives CS Wycliffe Oparanya for a similar exercise.
The following day, the team will be at Trades ministry and later in the day at Ardhi House for a meeting with Alice Wahome (Lands).
On Wednesday, the Owalo-Wanjau team will engage Health CS Beatrice Mlongo at Afya house and the ICT ministry in the afternoon.
All these will be entailed in Perfomance Contracts, which individuals will sign and commit themselves to beforehand, and on the basis of which they will be held to account by way of results at the end of the activity period.
“We want to institutionalise results-based management in the public service,” Owalo said.
The team will on Thursday take the performance contracting to Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi’s office followed by the Water ministry on the same day before closing the week at Interior and Roads ministry.
The following week, the team has lined up meetings at Labour and Environment ministries, followed by Public Service and the Office of the Attorney General.
The team will then meet with Sports CS Kipchumba Murkomen and Blue Economy CS Hassan Joho on October 2.
The following day, similar meetings will be held with Treasury CS John Mbadi and his Tourism counterpart Mary Miano.
Education and EAC ministries are scheduled to agree on the deliverables on October 4, while Energy and Defence are slotted for October 7.
Gender ministry and State House will have their day on October 8, followed by offices of the Chief of Staff and Deputy President the following day.