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County shifts focus on human capital for efficiency

By May 26, 2019 No Comments

During his second term, H.E Governor Alex Tolgos created the Public Service Management Department to shift focus to the County’s Human Resource capital in a bid to improve the government’s operational capacity.

This, he said, was vital to the success of our project and programmes. Since 2017 when the department was established, a number of initiatives have been started that has increased staff productivity.

They include the introduction and operationalization of a Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) to improve performance of departments who now have targets to achieve by the end of the RRI period.

“Among the areas the RRI is targeting is the evaluation and monitoring of projects implementation as well as absorption of funds allocated to the County which has drastically improved,” said CEC Public Service Management, Pamela Rono.

Other achievements made to date include the establishment of a human resource registry which has improved efficiency and effectiveness of human resource management in the County.

“We also sent staff for training funded by our development partners on various aspects of governance including integrity and anti-corruption and also sent senior staff to the Kenya School of Government to improve their supervisory and leadership skills,” added the CEC.

To manage the payroll, the County has put in place measures to ensure that malpractices and un-procedural inclusion of employees into the payroll system are eliminated.

“We have come up with a staff establishment which has already been prepared and approved by the County Cabinet and whose objective is to identify and propose appropriate staffing in every cadre according to the functions, and align relevant services for better performance. This establishment will guide future human resource planning and staffing,” said Rono.

The County has further developed an Attachment and Internship policy which has been submitted to Assembly. This policy is part of the County’s strategy to promote youth inclusion in the workplace experience and improve their labour market relevance and exposure.

On the important area of public participation through our staff, the County has developed guidelines that will provide a methodology through which projects can attain their set objectives, clarify their scope and improve proper identification of required resources. This is addition to the formation and capacity building of project management committees in all wards.

To improve service delivery and access to government information and services by our people, the County commenced the construction of ward offices which double up as Information and Communication Centre (ICT) and documentation centres.

“These ward and ICT offices are at different levels of operationalization. The completed projects are waiting to be furnished and those incomplete are expected to be ready by the close of the 2018/2019 financial year,” said the CEC.

The construction of the two sub county offices for Marakwet East and Keiyo South are ongoing as efforts are made to source funds from the national government for the construction of a County headquarters.

Through the directorate of alcoholic drinks control, the County has established a treatment and rehabilitation centre in Iten in collaboration with the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) which needs further support to be fully operational.

We have established alcoholic drinks licensing regulations, embarked on citizen participation in regulation of alcoholic drinks outlets, public education and advocacy on the negative effects of alcohol and drug abuse including schools.