Treasury CS John Mbadi on Thursday advised the national government to avaoid rewarding failed politicians with appointments.
Speaking in Nairobi during the launch of the Bond Market Reforms by the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), Mbadi suggested that for the commercial government-owned parastatals to thrive, the decision to award political rejects with the entities' top jobs should be shelved.
‘’We should move away from government-owned enterprises being a dumping ground for failed politicians,’’ Mbadi urged.
Mbadi’s position is likely to be met with a lot of criticism since as CS, the law gives him the power to make some parastatal appointments on behalf of the President.
He, therefore, asked the President to employ objective reasoning in terms of the parastatal appointments in order to improve their status.
Mbadi further revealed that the government was currently taking in reforms aimed at revitalising the Ownership Policy for Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs), in line with the Cabinet approval of November 2023.
The policy provided for a framework aimed at enhancing corporate governance, accountability, and performance of GOEs, aligning them more closely with the standards applied to listed companies.
President William Ruto awarded senior politicians who campaigned on United Democratic Alliance tickets and failed to clinch elective seats with plum appointments within different sectors of the economy including the state parastatals.
Among those given the appointments were Caleb Kositany, former Member of Parliament for Soy, who was appointed to chair the board of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA).
Since taking over the Treasury Ministry, Mbadi found himself in a tough position of being entrusted to turn around Kenya’s fiscal architecture and policy aimed at addressing the financial deficits within the government.
He has since then announced policy proposals and decisions with the recent appointment of a steering committee to oversee the transition from cash-based accounting to accrual-based accounting at all levels of government.
Mbadi was however not clear when suggesting the need to stop awarding political rejects with parastatal appointments, on whether it would be translated to a policy immediately.
