When a farmer is preparing his shamba for the planting season, he clears all the weed with their roots. This is to prevent the stubborn weeds from springing up again to compete for nutrients with the crops.
Indeed President Uhuru Kenyatta's move to talk about addressing the country's fast rising wage bill is vital. A lot of public funds are spent on recurrent expenditure compared to development projects.
The country's debt currently stands at 1.9 trillion shillings.The last report published by the Auditor General indicated that about 300 billion shillings of public funds are lost to corruption annually and with a budget of 1.6 trillion, the country's wage bill stands at 458 billion! Indeed it's high time this thorny issue was addressed.
For a country that is gearing towards rapid economic growth, it is important to cut down recurrent costs, focus more on development projects in order to achieve economic prosperity.
But will the proposed move to reduce the civil servants salaries completely curb this economic crisis?
If all top civil servants' salaries are chopped, the country will save about 800 million shillings annually.This figure is peanuts compared to the billions of shillings that are lost annually through financial misappropriation.
I think this soaring wage bill crisis can be solved when the following issues are tackled:
First, corruption should be tamed. This is the root cause of economic problems in this country. If Uhuru's government cannot fight corruption then i am sorry, cutting employees' salaries won't solve this enormous problem.
Secondly, the country should reduce the number of representatives in parliament. Creating 80 more constituencies to me was a grave mistake. With the introduction of county governments, the number of parliamentary seats should be reduced.
Thirdly, the government should conduct a thorough head count in all ministries, to fish out the said 'ghost workers' who, apparently are paid close to 1.8 billion shillings annually.
The fourth solution to this issue is to do away with sitting allowances for employees. I mean, why should one be paid for attending a meeting? Aren't they paid monthly do to their jobs? This among many other recurrent expenditures such as excess foreign travels by state officials if reduced i think the current wage bill problem will become a thing of the past.
Indeed President Uhuru Kenyatta's move to talk about addressing the country's fast rising wage bill is vital. A lot of public funds are spent on recurrent expenditure compared to development projects.
The country's debt currently stands at 1.9 trillion shillings.The last report published by the Auditor General indicated that about 300 billion shillings of public funds are lost to corruption annually and with a budget of 1.6 trillion, the country's wage bill stands at 458 billion! Indeed it's high time this thorny issue was addressed.
For a country that is gearing towards rapid economic growth, it is important to cut down recurrent costs, focus more on development projects in order to achieve economic prosperity.
But will the proposed move to reduce the civil servants salaries completely curb this economic crisis?
If all top civil servants' salaries are chopped, the country will save about 800 million shillings annually.This figure is peanuts compared to the billions of shillings that are lost annually through financial misappropriation.
I think this soaring wage bill crisis can be solved when the following issues are tackled:
First, corruption should be tamed. This is the root cause of economic problems in this country. If Uhuru's government cannot fight corruption then i am sorry, cutting employees' salaries won't solve this enormous problem.
Secondly, the country should reduce the number of representatives in parliament. Creating 80 more constituencies to me was a grave mistake. With the introduction of county governments, the number of parliamentary seats should be reduced.
Thirdly, the government should conduct a thorough head count in all ministries, to fish out the said 'ghost workers' who, apparently are paid close to 1.8 billion shillings annually.
The fourth solution to this issue is to do away with sitting allowances for employees. I mean, why should one be paid for attending a meeting? Aren't they paid monthly do to their jobs? This among many other recurrent expenditures such as excess foreign travels by state officials if reduced i think the current wage bill problem will become a thing of the past.
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