The World Bank has issued a directive to the government to revisit earlier proposals that envisioned cutting down the operational expenses by sending home thousands of national and county government employees.
This advisory joins a similar proposal by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank's affiliate organ asking the Government to consider "cleaning the payroll of ghost and redundant workers and reducing the level of wage adjustments."
In a statement released on Wednesday, the World Bank expressed concern that the recurrent expenditure in revenues for both national and county governments requires an ambitious cut.
[caption caption="Kenyans seating in a Nairobi street"]
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The radical programme had been first proposed under the tenure of former Devolution Cabinet Secretary and current Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru and was released in 2015.
According to the 2015 plan, over 43,000 public servants would be offered a chance to retire and receive a ‘golden handshake’ compensation of between Ksh450, 000 and Ksh750, 000.
However, the political repercussions of such a move on the 2017 general elections saw the plan shelved although reports indicate that the document could be presented to the Cabinet for discussion.
The government is likely to implement the proposal given that the World Bank issued the directive as a basic requirement for the country to access financing and the risk of angering voters has already been overtaken by time.
This retrenchment of thousands of Government workers would save the country a projected estimate of Ksh185 Billion annually.
Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich is expected to table the 2018/2019 budget within the next two months which will be an opportune time for the government to adopt the recommendations by World Bank and IMF.
[caption caption="Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich"]
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Public Service CS Margaret Kobia will certainly be at the center stage of implementing the recommendation given that the civil service staffing docket falls within her ministerial duties.
