President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday announced his new cabinet, which consists of 22 cabinet secretaries and 21 Chief Administrative Secretaries.
Making the announcement of the new appointments from State House, Nairobi, President Kenyatta stated that he had created a new Government position of Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) in all ministries.
"The CAS will broadly be responsible for helping cabinet secretaries to better coordinate the running of affairs of the various ministries," the President announced.
[caption caption="President Uhuru Kenyatta announcing his cabinet on Friday"]
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According to the Standard, the appointments and the creation of the new positions will bring the cost of running the Executive to Sh1.33 Billion.
The newspaper further explains that the cost of the new appointments to the taxpayer will be Sh486.4 Million annually if they earn the same as the current position holders.
As per the new pay structure announced by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) on July 10, the CSs earn a fixed salaries of Sh 924,000 while Principal Secretaries (PSs) earn Sh765,000.
Additional expenditure will be a result of gratuities, pensions and insurance for the new appointees which will bring the total cost to over Sh772 Million annually.
The Standard further estimated that with the 38 appointed PSs, the taxpayer will pay Sh348.8 Million a year with Sh209.3 Million in gratuities for the President's appointees.
A recent report by the Treasury showed that the public sector wage bill had ballooned by nearly Sh100 Billion over the last three years.
In the 2018 Budget Policy Statement, the Treasury predicted that the wage bill would stand at Sh444 Billion in the next financial year.
[caption caption="File image of the Treasury Building"]
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