Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has challenged governors to reduce or disband some offices in their governments as a way of addressing the ballooning wage bill.
Mbadi noted that most of the new county bosses are currently grappling with the high wage bill which he attributed to the new offices created to replicate those in the national government.
“I want to dissuade you from borrowing bad manners from the national government. There are many offices that you have created just because they exist in the national government,” Mbadi said.
The leaders, he stated, should instead be exerting pressure on the national government to disband such offices.
Mbadi cited the offices of advisors which he said has continued to drain the counties as they are of no use and contribute to losses.
“They don’t add value at all. Why should you have nine officers and technocrats in an office? If they are not up to the task, they should be removed from office and others take over their responsibilities,” he said.
Mbadi made the remarks during a consultative engagement with the Council of Governors (CoG) Health Committee.
The meeting was aimed at finding ways on how to improve coordination, cooperation, collaboration, partnership and information sharing for effective delivery of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
He also called for a solution to the bottlenecks surrounding disbursements to counties as one key step in supporting devolution.
Mbadi said the habit of having county finance officers flocking in Nairobi whenever the National government disburses funds to counties must be cured.
“Once funds have been transferred to the County Revenue Fund (CRF) Account, the subsequent processes must remain seamless and prompt with zero systematic obstructions,” he said.
He promised the counties that by December 2024 disbursement shall be up-to-date, without any pending as it is today.
“Our aim as a government is to fully support devolution and have counties run their day-to-day activities smoothly without any challenges,” he added.