Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Team wants county staffing put on hold


Team wants county staffing put on hold

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Former Public Service boss Francis Muthaura in July last year directed ministries to deploy technical staff to counties by September. Photo/FILE
Former Public Service boss Francis Muthaura in July last year directed ministries to deploy technical staff to counties by September. Photo/FILE 
By SAMUEL SIRINGI ssiringi@ke.nation
Posted  Monday, June 4  2012 at  22:30
The ongoing deployment of staff to counties ahead of the General Election will be suspended if new government proposals are adopted.
A government taskforce formed to look into ways of staffing the devolved units has faulted the ongoing staffing in counties arguing that ministries were doing so before adequately identifying their staffing needs.
“It may be prudent to delay further redeployment of staff to some later date to allow for systematic implementation of the directive,” says Report on Devolved Functions, Structures and Staffing for County Governments dated May 2012.
Former Public Service boss Francis Muthaura in July last year directed ministries to deploy technical staff to counties by September to provide an initial staff required to kick-start the establishment of county governments.
According to Mr Muthaura’s letter, the ministries were to file returns showing the staffing by October 31, 2011.
But according to the report of the taskforce formed by the Public Service ministry that has been sent to ministries for final feedback, the staffing exposed serious challenges that showed the need for “comprehensive functional analysis before any further deployment”.
The delay, the report says, “would allow time to determine operational modalities for the out-posted staff, including their relationship with existing staffing structures”.
The report also warns that the deployment of staff to counties could also end up promoting tribalism in the devolved zones.
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“It is important to avoid setting a precedent to the county governments in matters of ethnic distribution, where staff would be concentrated in counties of their ethnic origin,” the report says.
It recommends that an inter-ministerial workshop on devolution be convened for ministries.
Between now and the polls, the taskforce suggested, the Central Government should allocate resources to finance the operation of county governments.

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