SRC Commences Study on Public Service Allowances

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has commenced a study on allowances payable by public institutions in Kenya. The study will identify, document, categorise and analyse all allowances payable to officers in the Public Service. The aim of the study is to help streamline the allowances that have contributed to the ballooning of the public wage bill.

The scope of the study, which will be conducted by Deloitte and Touche on behalf of the Commission, includes all remunerative and facilitative allowances payable in the entire public service to both State Officers and other Public Officers, and will span both National and County governments.

The study will also give a clear baseline on allowances across public institutions.

The Public Service allowances are an integral contributor to overall remuneration and benefits of Public and State officers, but the present situation is that these vary across different public institutions.

A research commissioned by the SRC and carried out by the Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) to look into the public private sector wage differentials show that allowances paid to civil servants have made the government the preferred employer. Currently, allowances have the effect of doubling employee’s pay and in some instances growing it by a factor of 10. 

The Commission’s recommendations on harmonisation of allowances will be informed by the evidence-based study, and not drawn from theoretical assumptions, underscoring the importance of this study to the greater process within the mandate of the Commission.

Information to be gathered by the study will include types of allowances payable to state and public officers, the eligibility criteria and the purpose for which the allowances are paid, the rate, frequency and mode of payment for each allowance and the aggregate cost of all remunerative and facilitative allowances payable to officers in the public service.

The Commission has written to key public institutions formally informing them of the study and requesting their support in carrying out this exercise whose results are expected to be out by end of first quarter of the financial year 2014/15.