October 23, 2018 www.mygov.go.ke Verbatim NEWSFOCUS | 7 new impetus to public sector The longer the person has been working in the public service, the higher the remuneration. This automatic annual increment is one of the causes of escalation of wages without corresponding productivity, and does not to account issues of motivation. While we recognise the need to compensate inflation and other factors that erode employees pay, there is need to focus more on productivity and performance. This calls for a robust performance management system to be put in place to support this new dispensation. It is also important that staff are motivated to perform at optimal levels. You have mentioned transformation as a key driver of your ministry. What has the Ministry of Public Service Youth and Gender Affairs done to support this transformation? provisions regarding ethnic diversity, gender balance; we have an imbalance between support and professional personnel; we have duplication and overlap of functions within and across the two levels of Government. These are some of the issues that require fundamental reforms. Have you started implementing any reforms as yet? The study itself marked the commencement of the reform process as it analysed the current situation and provided the intelligence for action. Both levels of Government resolved to address these issues and the measures currently being implemented include development and adoption of norms and standards; adoption of generic model organisation structures for National and County Governments; adoption of the Skills and Competency Framework; development of a National Master Plan for high priority and scarce skills; development of a succession management strategy; adoption of unified human resource and payroll number; and rationalisation of staffing ratio to achieve 70/30 optimal of Technical Staff to Support Staff. It is work in progress. Should we expect to see other reforms in the Public Service in the near future? The Public Service is a dynamic entity that has to adopt to the changes in the wider society. Always, there are reforms taking place to improve service delivery to mwananchi. It is a continuum. Transformation is the operational word in public service today. At times you wish to remove the bread from the oven when it is fully baked, but now that you ask, let me mention a few that are still in the works. First is the use of performance contracting model which is a management framework to enhance improved service delivery by ensuring that top-level managers are accountable for results, and in turn hold those below them accountable. It ensures that resources are focused in attainment of the key national policy priorities of the Government; institutionalising performance-oriented culture. Second is Job Evaluation which we are adopting as a management tool in Public Service. SRC carried out the job evaluation exercise across the Public Service aimed at addressing the deeprooted problems of wage inequities and disWhen cell phone money transfers were introduced in the country, there were sceptics. Now it is a pervasive national paragon that the rest of the world flocks here top study.The Government has adopted a “cashlight” policy where all public agencies should provide customers the option for making electronic payments for government services. The Huduma smart service and payments card responds to this and provides an integrated and interoperable platform for service delivery and electronic payments that conforms to global card payment standards. parities which have been a source of low morale and disaffection amongst the public servants. Job evaluation will address major inequities in the service and marks the beginning of having an efficient management of the Public Service wage bill. It sounds like a paradigm shift where Public Service will henceforth be pegging reward to performance and productivity? Yes, the Government policy has shifted to focus on increasing productivity and rewarding performance. The current practice is that the public sector salary structure rewards employees every year without recognition of performance. To that allow me to add “innovation”. Transformation and innovation in public service delivery. Huduma Kenya centers capture the essence of this concept. Huduma Kenya’s primary objective is to provide efficient Government services at the convenience of the citizens. Our centres and innovations are built and run around this principal objective. Besides taking services closer to the people, what other innovation has Huduma concept brought to life. Huduma Card. It is the epitome of e-government. It is an electronic payment system which citizens can use to pay for various government services. Huduma Card uses the one-stop shop delivery model and thus Kenyans are able to receive or remit various transactional services from a single source. You do not have to move from bank to bank to pay for various services. Huduma Card is a one-stop-shop-wallet. What are the main benefits of the Huduma card for the Government? The key benefit is that the Kenyan citizen will be able to access services much more effectively and in a short period of time from anywhere in the country and thus the Government will be able to deliver on its promise to provide efficient services conveniently to all Kenyans. All Kenyans who subscribe to the card will be enrolled to key government programmes like NSSF and NHIF. This will ensure universal coverage of all Kenyans to key social benefits while making it convenient for Kenyans to make their monthly contributions to the programmes. Government can also make remittances through it including cash transfers to orphaned and vulnerable children, to beneficiaries of food subsidies, Uwezo Fund beneficiaries and Youth and Women Funds disbursements among others. The card will also go a long way in fighting corruption as it eliminates that service level human contact which create corruption opportunities. Can ordinary Kenyans operate such a card system? You will find that Kenyans embrace and adopt easily to new ways of doing things. They are very adaptable. When cell phone money transfers were introduced in the country, there were sceptics. Now it is a pervasive national paragon that the rest of the world flocks here top study. The Government has adopted a “cashlight” policy where all public agencies should provide customers the option for making electronic payments for government services. The Huduma smart service and payments card responds to this and provides an integrated and interoperable platform for service delivery and electronic payments that conforms to global card payment standards. It has been several years since the launch of Huduma Centres. Do you think they have made a difference in the lives of ordinary Kenyans? When this administration ascended to power some four years ago, it set out to transform the way public service is delivered to Kenyans. Over 45,000 Kenyans are served daily at Huduma Centres and 9.5 million Kenyans have been served satisfactorily since the establishment of Huduma Kenya Programme. We now have 52 Huduma Centres in 47 counties. Huduma Kenya Programme has won local, regional and global awards in the very short history of its establishment. They include United Nations Public Service Award, African Public Service Awards, Customer Service awards, Excellence Innovative Management award, and use of ICT award amongst others. What is the long-term goal of Huduma? Through the Huduma Kenya Programme the Government aims at transforming the Public Service towards a people-centred, professional, efficient, transparent and accountable service that meets global standards, best practices and one that avails to customers with multiple one stop shop channels in accessing government services. Huduma continues to innovate to serve the Kenyan public more efficiently, effectively and at minimal cost. It is about value for money. We are now introducing the Huduma Mashinani service outreach concept. Using this approach, the ministry has been providing the commonly sought after public services to the people at the grassroots level. We adopted this approach as a standard service delivery practice. In practice, each of the Huduma Centers undertake one outreach activity to a sub-county every month in all the 47 Counties. The services offered will include application for IDs, Birth Certificates, Police Abstracts, KRA services, NSSF, NHIF, registration of self-help groups, Pensions applications and affirmative action funds such as Uwezo Fund, Youth Enterprise Fund, Women Enterprise Fund among others. Wananchi get real time information on how to access these services, have their questions answered, including how to access funds set aside for marginalised groups, women and the youth. Kenya School of Government (KSG) is under your docket, do they have any role to play in the Public Service reform? Kenya School of Government is a very important cog in this equation. The institution is a Vision 2030 project. The objectives of the school are to build competencies for the Government, develop and grow leadership in the public service, and promote best practices in Public Service delivery. KSG programmes are also instrumental in the implementation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, strengthening the pillars of public governance, and upholding and promoting public service values, ethics and transformational leadership. It prepares the public service for transformational leadership which the public service embraces and implements in all its programmes. It is the chief trainer for both national and county governments. KSG has evolved into a regional powerhouse in training managers and leaders from the Eastern Africa region. Its accomplishments in administration and strategic management training has received international recognition.
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