Governors have expressed reservations in the planned retrenchment of public servants and have asked the government to look for other ways of rationalisation.
“Although we agree The Capacity Assessment and Rationalisation of Public Service Programme (CARPS) is noble, we are of the opinion that a number of factors needs to be addressed before the report can be adopted,” said CoG Chairman Peter Munya.
He blamed the bloated workforce in the civil service to the duplication of duties at the two levels of government.
Speaking in Naivasha on Friday, Mr Munya said the management of the wage bill was dependent on the restructuring of the national government ministries, departments and agencies.
“The bloated workforce being witnessed is exacerbated by the fact that even though functions like agriculture, health and water have been devolved, we still have duplication of duties,” he said.
He said ministries continue to hire staff to perform the same tasks that are constitutionally assigned to the county governments.
Mr Munya’s remarks follows a statement by Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru that the government will embark on ” staff rationalisation” to tame the wage bill.
Nearly 40,000 civil servants will lose their jobs and those to be affected are in positions made redundant by the constitution.
Mr Munya noted with concern the slow pace of completing transfers of functions assigned to the devolved units, with the timeline elapsing in March 2016.
He said the limited transfer of the functions by the county government will inevitably culminate into a constitutional crisis if not done within the stipulated timeframe.
“We urge the Transition Authority to gazette the remaining functions,” he said.
He said county governments could not proceed to undertake the duties unless they are gazetted.
Mr Munya also hailed the National Treasury for releasing the 2015 disbursement but regretted that funds were sent to counties later that the scheduled constitution timeframe.
“The counties are literary gliding to a halt,” said the CoG chairman.
He said the delay was hampering service delivery, with workers going for months without pay as well as the holdup in the implementation of development projects.
DAILY NATION
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