Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has intensified pressure on Permanent Secretaries (PSs) and government officials to expedite service delivery across the country.
Speaking at the 2024 National Development Implementation Committee (NDIC) meeting held at the Railways Headquarters Offices, Mudavadi emphasized that inefficiency remains prevalent in the administration of public affairs.
The Prime CS further lamented on the sluggish provision of public services by various government ministries to the people of Kenya.
“Silo-mentality, self turfs, lethargy, and inefficiency is still evident in the management of public affairs, which is slowing down and impeding delivery of key services to Kenyans,” the Prime CS said.
He further issued a warning to Principal Secretaries, urging them to eradicate inefficiencies and prevent issues from defining them or becoming their downfall.
“There will be a paradigm shift in the management of public affairs and we have to adopt the trajectory that will be driven by the Whole of Government Approach characterized by customer oriented high performing teams on set targets, excellence and professionalism.”
Mudavadi stated that they have many signed Memorandum of Understandings, but the implementation is very weak, and, in some cases, there is no follow up.
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Mudavadi Laments on Slow Growth
He emphasized that is very important for government officials to optimize on the available resources that they have.
The prime CS reminded the PSs of the deliverables agreed upon during the inaugural NDIC meeting that was held in March last year at the Kenya School of Government, decrying that one year down the line, the results have not shown steady progressive growth.
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“President Ruto has severally reminded us to protect public resources with zeal to be able to actualize the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA). Again, the President raised the issue during the last Cabinet Retreat in Naivasha, where we were all in attendance,” he cautioned.
“We have not been overzealous in protection of public resources. Duplications and overlaps in some of our MDAs and State Agencies is shocking. As a result, the President has directed the consolidation process of State Agencies to commence to stop duplicity of functions and wastages.” Mudavadi said.
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Coordination of Ministries in Service Delivery
The Prime CS said the government is keen to ensure timely and effective delivery of government projects pointing out that the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary will remain to be the focal point for coordination of Government operations.
“The National Government Coordination Secretariat (NGCS) has the overarching mandate of coordination and oversight, and NGCS has already undertaken a range of initiatives including holding several collaboration meetings with the National Government Administration Organization through the Ministry of Interior and Administration of Government,” Mudavadi pointed out.
“Other initiatives include developing a draft coordination, oversight, supervision and management framework and developing an outline of a list of priority projects, programmes and policies for coordination and oversighting.”
Also, Mudavadi told the NDIC that a comprehensive report on the above engagements will be out in a couple of weeks and ready for presentation in the next sitting of the NDIC this year.
The meeting came after Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission (EACC) released a report revealing how Kenyans are paying as much as Ksh163,000 to be employed in government, with the average bribe to access a state service hitting Kshh11,685.
Further, the report shows that over 60 per cent of Kenyans are dissatisfied with the level of integrity and transparency in public services.
