Blow to Civil Servants as Gov’t Moves to Abolish Most of the 149 Allowances

The government is reportedly set to abolish most of the 149 allowances currently enjoyed by civil servants.

The Standard reports that the move is part of the State’s plan to ensure equity and reduce the ballooning wage bill.

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has begun implementing major pay reviews for the 750,000 civil servants. The reviews aim at doing away with most of the 149 allowances.

In the first phase, the salaries commission has reviewed the housing, hardship, leave and subsistence allowances.

The four allowances will be retained but will be reviewed to ensure equity and cut back the high public sector wage bill.

Most of the remaining allowances will be fused, harmonized or scrapped altogether.

For many public workers, allowances make up over 50 percent of the gross salary but the basic pay is widely referred to during employees’ push for salary increment.

The move is expected to attract fierce opposition since abolishing most of the allowances will translate to less money in the workers’ pockets.

The allowances have been blamed for the inequalities in pay for the same workers working in different ministries or government departments.

For instance, a worker may be earning nearly twice for the same job done by another worker in a different ministry.

“Despite various initiatives taken to rationalize allowances in the Public Service, allowances have continued to increase significantly in terms of numbers and amount relative to salaries,” says SCR Chairperson Lyn Mengich.

The move comes after a job evaluation whose findings are critical in determining which allowances could be justified for the different roles.

The survey commissioned by SRC established that 61 different types of allowances account for 70 percent of gross pay for public service employees.

The study by Deloitte explains the public sector is even attracting workers from the private sector because of the huge allowances.

“The numerous allowances are used to conceal money paid out to civil servants and which forms a big part of their pay,” reads the draft report titled ‘Wind of change’.

Kenya’s public wage bill currently stands at Sh700 billion a year.  

Union of Kenya Civil Servants secretary general Jerry ole Kina says any plans to consolidate or scrap the current allowances should be done gradually to cushion workers.

“It must be done in a very systematic way. The matter touching on allowances is very tricky and therefore should be a gradual process where eventually it affects those being employed afresh and not those already in service,” he states.

 “The allowances cannot be stopped immediately without the contributory pension being in place. Also, not all allowances can be targeted.”