By STANDARD REPORTER

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission will soon begin a one and-a-half year job evaluation
of the 680,000 public servants in the national and county governments.
The 18-month exercise to be carried out by Deloitte East Africa is the final step towards
harmonising salaries in Government to reduce the huge public wage bill, estimated at Sh568
billion for the current 2014-2015 financial year, which gobbles up over 50 per cent of the
domestic revenue collections.
Addressing a media breakfast for editors at a hotel in Nairobi, SRC chairperson Sarah Serem said
measures taken by the Government so far based on the commission's recommendations have
saved the Treasury an estimated Sh1.2 billion.
The exercise will consider the complexity of each job and the responsiblities and education and
skills required for every category.
However, Serem said the true picture of how much the Government can save will only be clear
once the job evaluation is complete.
"Any saving we make is important even if it is just one shilling," said Serem, while admitting no
target has been set for now because the SRC is starting the exercise from ground zero.
The SRC chairperson said that while the Government knows how much it is spending on
salaries, the distorted wage structure is not a reliable indicator at present of the likely amount to
be saved.
She warned county public service boards against adjusting salaries and job grades of civil
servants before the SRC process is completed as this would be illegal.
At least one county public service board was recently reported to have reduced the salaries of
some civil servants and changed their job grades, butt Public Service Commission chairperson
Prof Margaret Kobia warned that such an action is illegal and those responsible may face
prosecution even after they leave office.
"You will lose the country if you allow everyone to set their own salaries," said the SRC
chairperson yesterday.
Serem said the exercise will be open and fair and should not be used to target any civil servant.
"We are evaluating the job and not the individual. The aim is to remove disparities across the
civil service and pay people what their jobs are worth," she said.