Why the government wants to suspend public sector employment for a year

The government has announced that it will suspend recruitment in the public sector for a period of one year.

Presenting the 2024/25 budget in Parliament on Thursday, June 14, Finance Minister Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u said the move was aimed at improving the efficiency of public spending and achieving a balanced budget.

“On expenditure, we should ensure that our scarce resources are used as efficiently and effectively as possible. Measures to control expenditure include suspending all new recruitment for the next year,” Prof. Njuguna explained.

He added that an audit would be carried out to clean up all public payrolls with the aim of workers and enforcing the payment of salary levels approved or recommended by the SRC.

In his budget report, the Finance Ministry’s CS also called for a cut in spending on foreign travel, a rationalisation of all training costs across the government and a restriction of all training to government institutions.

In addition, Prof. Njuguna announced that the purchase of furniture for government offices would be suspended for a period of one year.

“In order to achieve a balanced budget and further improve the efficiency of public spending, the following bold measures and reforms have been outlined in the 2024/25 fiscal year: cutting spending on the following expenditure items: foreign travel; rationalising all training costs across the government and restricting all training to government institutions; rationalising all funds for the purchase of motor vehicles and suspending the purchase of furniture for a period of one year; and suspending all renovations and partitioning of government offices,” the CS said.

Meanwhile, Prof. Njuguna pointed out that in the new budget, the government will review the insurance schemes (Edu Afya, the indigent, the civil service, the police and prisons, commissions and independent offices) under the universal health insurance scheme and align them with the social health insurance fund.