Commission on Revenue Allocation Chairman Micah Cheserem
By BERYL WAMBANI bwambani@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Thursday, April 5 2012 at 22:00
Posted Thursday, April 5 2012 at 22:00
IN SUMMARY
- Revenue agency proposes creation of 10 county directors posts in each of the 47 regions
Nearly 1,000 senior civil service jobs will be created in the counties if proposals by the revenue agency are adopted.
The Commission of Revenue Allocation has suggested the creation of 10 county directors posts in each of the 47 regions.
Also to be created would be 10 county secretaries positions in each of the counties as provided for in the Constitution.
The occupants of the jobs will each be in charge of different departments and will work under the supervision of the head of the county public service.
This is a position slightly lower than the deputy governor, according to the commission headed by former Central Bank of Kenya governor Micah Cheserem.
The proposed structure shows that the head of the county public service and directors will be civil servants.
Appointed by governor
Commission communications director George Muruli said the 10 county secretaries would be appointed by the governor.
But the head of the county public service and 10 directors will be posted by the national Public Service Commission.
The head of the county public service will have the same mandate as the head of the Public Service Commission at the national level, according to Mr Muruli, who addressed students of Moi University, Nairobi campus, on Wednesday evening.
The county secretaries will be in charge of standardised 10 county service departments, he said.
The departments are finance and accounting, agriculture and livestock, the environment and natural resources, health services and physical planning and housing.
Others are public works and utilities, public service management, trade, industrial development, roads and transport, and education.
These positions were proposed in the County Governments Act that President Kibaki rejected.
Mr Muruli said they represent the commission’s interpretation of the constitutional structure of the county units.
If the proposal is approved, it will lead to a “lean administrative structure” and spare taxpayers’ money.
“We are recommending lean (structures) to allow the wage bill to go down in order to create sustainability and revenue generation,” Mr Muruli said.
The new structure, he said, will also promote transparency in public appointments as the appointees by the governor will be vetted by the County Assembly.
“Different arms of the government will be involved in different issues affecting devolvement as pertains to their mandate. It is up to the PSC to deal with training and job descriptions in the civil service,” added Mr Muruli.
The communications director stressed the need to have county governments work in harmony with the central government to ensure disbursed money is being used appropriately.
The Integrated Financial Management Information System, Mr Muruli noted, will be used to link all counties to the office of the Controller of Budget and the Kenya Audit office to follow up and ensure that funds are used for what they were budgeted for.
Distribution of resources.
“There will also be an incentive to encourage fiscal discipline, whereby counties doing well in terms of allocation and use as well as revenue generation will be awarded with more allocation to special projects,” said Mr Muruli.
The commission, he added, was keen on ensuring equitable distribution of resources.
The revenue from the recently discovered oil would be allocated in line with the Constitution once it is determined to be commercially viable.
According to the Constitution, the national government gets 80 per cent of revenue from the minerals.
The county where the mineral prospects are will get 15 per cent while the local community will get five per cent.
The CRA has additionally come up with a policy paper, which is before Parliament, to suggest a better way of resource allocation, he added.
The commission will roll out civic education programmes in institutions of higher learning countrywide.
It will involve government agencies, NGOs, lobby groups, trade unions, religious groups and professional organisations to have a bigger impact.
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