State officers face pay cut in new salary structure

Some State officers are set to lose part of their hefty perks when a new pay structure is released Tuesday morning.

Sources within the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) said the new structure would ensure fair compensation in the Public Service.

“We will see some high earners lose part of the current pay so that the earnings of those at the bottom can be lifted to reasonable and sustainable levels,” a source said.

Harmonisation of pay is expected to boost the performance of the Civil Service that has been beset by uneven salaries for people doing the same work.

President Kibaki urged all stakeholders to back the new initiative saying it would ensure fairness in the remuneration of public servants.

“We should make deliberate efforts to ensure that the remuneration of public officers is managed transparently,” the Head of State said Monday when he met members of SRC.

Last month the Treasury hinted that there could be massive job cuts and review of salaries in the public service from July. This would help the government manage a wage bill inflated by Sh40 billion to get teachers, lecturers and doctors back to work.

“Difficult choices must be made to ensure that scarce resources are directed to priority areas of economic development,” Finance Minister Njeru Githae said in the Budget Policy Paper released in January.

Among the listed choices was layoffs and wage increase freezes.

“Salary pressures will also impact on pensions hence increasing the government contingent liability,” Treasury permanent secretary Joseph Kinyua said in the paper.

According to the Economic Survey 2012, Kenya had about 220,000 central government employees as at 2011.

The Treasury said new recruitments and adjustments in civil service remuneration had raised the wage bill to Sh420 billion a year, about 40 per cent of government revenue, up from about 30 per cent three years ago.

In the current fiscal year, the Treasury estimates that total revenue collection shall be about Sh956.9 billion.