Why The Government Has Stopped Hiring For Three Years

The government will freeze hiring for the next three years immediately in austerity measures to reduce the country’s wage bill treasury CS Ukur Yatani has said.

“There will be no recruitment of staff in the next three years unless a ministry, state department or agency (MDA) gets the approval of the Treasury”

The CS says this is to make sure saved funds prioritised to drive the Big Four agenda “to build on the progress made so far as the state confronts unemployment, poverty and inequality.”

Yatani, in a circular to all principal secretaries and other accounting officers of the national and county governments, warns there will be no costs covered by the government for recruitment in the 2019-20 budget.

The directive further stops ministries from looking to the government for money for interns or any planned staff upgrades, meaning government employees will not be seeing any pay rises soon, this is because the government agencies are headed for budget cuts of monumental proportions.

The treasury has set tough conditions for approving funding requests presented by ministries and state departments. Ministries will now be required to get written approval from the Treasury confirming availability of funds before putting a salary review request to SRC.

The CS has proposed that money transferred to the entities be factored on their revenue base and the savings channelled to other sectors.