Civil servants stand to lose billions of shillings after the Salaries and Remuneration Commission proposed the elimination of four allowances.
The commission has recommended the abolishment of retreat allowance, sitting allowance for institutional internal committee members, task force allowance, and non-practice allowance saying they are tantamount to double payment.
The SRC verdict comes five months after the commission chairperson said a review of the allowances policy would be ready by end of the year paving way for trimming public officers allowances and saving up to 100 billion shillings annually.
Currently, there are over 247 remunerative and facilitative allowances payable within the public service, up from 31 in 1999, straining the national bill through double payments.
Besides trimming allowances, the SRC targets to cap allowances at a maximum of 40 percent of a public worker’s gross pay.
Following the review, the SRC has now recommended scrapping the four allowances even as it invited public views on the suggestions.
Retreat allowance is currently paid to public officers participating in special assignments meant to review, develop and produce policy documents away from their work station.
The SRC, however, argues that the review, development, and production of policy documents is a job responsibility that is factored in determining the relative worth of a job during a job evaluation, hence is catered for by salaries paid to civil servants.
The SRC also targets to scrap sitting allowance for members of institutional internal committees which are constituted to assist the execution of the mandate of the institutions.
The SRC further proposes the abolishment of internal task force allowances terming them a form of double pay because the members are already compensated to execute the functions of their employer institutions.
A public officer shall not be paid for more than one task force for the same period of time. A taskforce allowance shall be payable to a public officer for a maximum period of 15 days in a month.
SRC proposed that where a public officer is involved in a task force on a full-time basis for more than one month, the officer will be required to opt for either the taskforce allowance or the monthly salary for the substantive post.
The non-practice allowance, which was intended to facilitate the attraction and retention of specific scarce, rare, and critical professional skills in public service, is also set for a shake-up.
The commission said while the allowance served its purpose when it was first introduced, the situation has changed hence the need to scrap it.
