President to appraise governors in new plan

By EDITH FORTUNATE efortunate@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Sunday, June 2  2013 at  23:30

IN SUMMARY

• Leaders expected to craft their own scorecard that will be used to check delivery of services

The President will closely monitor governors’ performance to ensure efficient service delivery to the public.

A governors’ summit to decide on the appraisal formula will be held to deliberate on how to achieve development in the counties.

These are among proposals to be effected after budget reading this month at the summit that will be chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The summit is a means to have checks and balances in the realisation of county governments.

It is also meant to build a good working relationship between the national and county governments.

Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia told the Nation in an interview the proposals sought to ensure there was a national framework for counties.

“The governors summit will outline how they want to be appraised. The scorecard is crucial in the counties and national government as it ensures there is good performance at the county level,” said Mr Kimemia.

The proposal will also look at skills transferred from the national to the county government, and finances allocated to different counties.

“The scorecard is a transformative tool; it will be able to ascertain whether financial allocations given to the counties are uniform with their needs. We also look at the manpower transferred from central government to establish if they are serving the interests of the people,” he said.

Mr Kimemia added that the national framework of counties is crucial for the central government since the devolved units implement the government agenda at their level.

Under-performance among civil servants, he said, would be dealt with accordingly. “The duty of public servants at the county level is to help governors deliver better services to the people and also ensure the government’s agenda is implemented to the latter.”