Pressure Govt to Disband Offices – CS John Mbadi Reveals Useless Civil Servants
Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi on Thursday challenged governors to disband unnecessary county offices which he claimed added no value to the government.
Speaking in Naivasha during a meeting with governors, the CS attributed the unsustainable wage bills crippling operations at the devolved units to irrelevant offices created by the governors.
Mbadi disclosed that lowering the number of offices would go a long way in helping create reasonable wage bills for the counties and save millions worth of funds that often go to waste.
Mbadi categorically faulted the county bosses for hiring and assigning several advisors to unnecessary roles which he pointed out eat into much needed resources that could be put to more constructive use.
An image of the Council of Governors at a past presser
“I know you have difficulties in managing your wage bills. There are so many offices that you are creating just because they exist in the national government,” Mbadi.
“We should put pressure on the national govt to disband the offices instead of replicating them. They make no sense, they are no use, unnecessary number of advisors and they don’t add value.”
According to the finance minister, the national government was similarly grappling with the menace claiming that some of the government advisors were not up to the task despite holding key roles.
“Even in the national government, we have too many advisors who don’t have value at all, we have nine officers who are technocrats if they are not put to the task, they should be removed,” the CS noted.
Mbadi’s advice comes amidst confrontations between the national government and county bosses with the latter advocating for an increase in the budgetary allocations.
While the National Treasury had proposed a Ksh391 billion allocation, the Council of Governors led by its Chairperson Anne Waiguru demanded Ksh439.5 billion.
According to Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga, financial strains faced by counties, particularly in meeting wage obligations and funding critical programmes like Early Childhood Development (ECD) education posed a major challenge for most counties.
The tussle between the Treasury and the governors comes barely three months after President William Ruto announced the implementation of austerity measures after the Finance Bill, 2024 was withdrawn.
President William Ruto delivering a speech about the rehabilitation of the Nairobi River. PHOTO/William Ruto.
