The Ministry of Labour Cabinet Secretary (CS) Simon Chelugui has signed the 2021/22 financial year performance contracts with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) and National Employment Authority (NEA).
Speaking at the event held at NSSF Building in Nairobi on Wednesday, the CS Stated that introduction of performance contracts was meant to improve service delivery to the Kenya people and also serve as a guide to the agencies in their implementation of policies, programmes, projects and activities outlined in each financial year.
“This is a tool of management that enhances accountability for results against resources that have been entrusted to your respective organizations,” said the CS.
Mr. Chelugui noted that although 2020/21 was a tough year, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and therefore most of the planned activities were disrupted, through proper leadership, organizations were expected to devise innovative ways to overcome challenges posed by Covid-19 and adapt to the new norms.
“Chair and CEOs/DGs, you need to guide your staff to be innovative, adopt best practices; and put in place systems and structures that will make our State Corporations achieve their set targets,” said the CS.
“From last financial years ranking, I have noted that overall NSSF performed well with a ranking of 70 out of 239 State Corporations, NEA was ranked position 164, an improvement from position 203 the previous year and NITA was ranked position 222 which was a drop from position 201 the previous year,” said Chelugui.
NITA Chief Executive Officer Mike Macharia stated that their training centers were shut down because of the pandemic and they could not go online because of the nature of their training.
“We are however developing an industrial training manual for online and this is expected to be a game changer,” he said.
At the same time NEA Representative Jacqueline Mugo stated that NEA has the vision of creating job centres in every county where job seekers can register and even learn how to write CVs.
NSSF board chairperson General (Rtd) Julius Karangi said that Covid-19 hit hard with over 90,000 people coming forward to collect their benefits. However, the pension fund weathered the storm and now has a net worth of over Sh310 billion.
To compare performance of various Ministries and State Corporations and Tertiary Institutions, the government through the ministry of public service, Gender, senior citizens affairs and special programmes, publishes performance rankings every year.
By Mike Mulinge and Brenda Wambui
