The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has announced a hefty remuneration cut for civil servants as from October 2022, which will mostly touch mostly on allowances.
Currently there are 247 remunerative and facilitative allowances, up from 31 in 1999, payable within the public sector accounting for 48 percent of the State wage bill.
SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich says that the review of a policy that will guide allowances in the public service is 80 per cent complete. The policy will see allowances capped at a maximum of 40 per cent of a public worker’s gross pay. Currently, the amount of allowance given to public servants are unlimited.
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The review will see the state wage bill reduced by approximately Ksh100 billion annually or Ksh2 billion weekly.
“In terms of the analysis, we are at 80 percent now, then we will issue an advisory to the institutions on the new structure. We will do this in the next three months,” Ms Mengich said on Tuesday.
“A number of institutions like university councils have been approving other allowances yet they do not have the mandate to do this. We are analysing then we will say this is what it (allowances plan) should look like”
The wage bill for the 923,000 public servants stands at more than Sh890 billion, having risen from Sh458 billion in 2013.
“Absence of a policy to guide management and administration of allowances and benefits in the public sector has led to proliferation of allowances, distortions in remuneration, unfairness in pay, lack of transparency, accountability and inequity,” the SRC said.
SRC is targeting allowances such as entertainment, responsibility, medical and utility, which cover items such as water, electricity and phone calls.
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