Roads minister Franklin Bett while addressing the press at a past function. Photo/FILE
By TIMOTHY KEMEI tkemei@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Tuesday, March 27 2012 at 22:30
Posted Tuesday, March 27 2012 at 22:30
Roads minister Franklin Bett has threatened to pull his ministry out of future assessment programmes, as he censured its ranking at the bottom of the performance table among government ministries and State corporations.
The minister, speaking while inspecting the Mau Summit-Kericho-Nyamasaria road which is currently under reconstruction, said the verdict was unfair and that he and other senior staff in the ministry were shocked when they heard it.
He added that though the ranking had hugely demoralised staff in his ministry, he had accepted the judgment “like a soldier.”
However, he demanded that the criteria of judgment be changed to focus more on service delivery rather than policy implementation.
“In the last year alone, the ministry tarmacked 300 kilometres of new roads at a cost of Sh30 billion and rehabilitated thousands of kilometres more. If that is not service delivery, then what is?” he asked.
He noted that one of the ministry’s biggest achievements was construction of a 136-kilometre tarmac road in North Eastern, through construction of the Turbi-Moyale, and Isiolo-Merille roads.
The minister took issue with the ranking panel for failing to recognise the work done by the ministry through its various departments and authorities, noting especially that most of the ministry’s work was carried out through authorities like the Kenya Urban Roads Authority and the Kenya National Highways Authority.
“One of our organs, the training institute KIHBT is receiving an ISO certification next week and that was also not included in the evaluation, which is not fair,” he said.
The minister also said the issue of performance contracting was a controversial one all over the world and must therefore be treated with a lot of caution.
Commenting on the recent Cabinet reshuffle, Mr Bett said it was up to the President and Prime Minister to make any changes they felt necessary as allowed by the Constitution.
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