Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has approved requests worth Sh 815.57 million, representing 49.8 per cent of the total requests from public service institutions, which amounted to Sh 1,637.63 million in the Financial Year 2023/2024.
Out of the 17 requests received by the Commission from public institutions, 10 requests, accounting for 59 per cent, were on Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs), while 7 requests, accounting for 41 per cent were bonus requests.
This was contained in the Second Quarter Wage Bill Bulletin for the period, October to December 2023, for the Financial Year (FY) 2023–2024, released by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
In a press statement sent to newsrooms on Friday, the Commission noted that during the period under review, the expenditure on Personnel Emolument (PE) in the National government is projected at Sh. 127.79 billion, compared to Sh. 123.53 billion in the same period in FY 2022-2023.
“The total expenditure on the National government PE is projected to increase from Sh 511.38 billion in the second quarter of FY 2022/2023, to Sh 691.04 billion in the same period in FY 2023/2024,” said the statement.
Although the total PE is projected to grow in absolute terms, the PE expenditure as a share of the total revenue is projected to reduce from 16.4 per cent in the second quarter of FY 2022/2023, to 15.5 per cent in the same period in FY 2023/2024.
It also indicated that the total expenditure of County governments in the second quarter of FY 2023/2024 is projected to increase to Sh 137.73 billion, representing a 52.4 per cent expenditure growth, compared to the same period in FY 2022/2023.
According to the Wage Bill bulletin, in FY 2023/2024, the expenditure on Personnel Emolument (PE) is projected to increase from Sh 41.79 billion in the first quarter to Sh 50 billion, which represents a 19.6 per cent growth.
SRC says the growth in Personnel Emolument expenditure is partly attributed to the growth of the county government’s expenditure results from the implementation of the third cycle of salary reviews, which awarded county governments a pay review of 18.8 per cent spread across two Fiscal Years, in addition to the implementation of the Annual Salary Increments.
“Weighed against the 35 per cent threshold set by Public Finance Management Regulations, 2015, the PE expenditure, as a proportion of the total expenditure, is projected to increase from 42.1 per cent in the first quarter of FY 2023/2024 to 46.9 per cent in the second quarter of FY 2023/2024. This is still above the threshold,” stated SRC.
On local and foreign travel expenditure, the Commission noted that although the total Daily Subsistence Allowance expenditure of the National government has continued to grow in absolute terms as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it has remained relatively stable under 1 per cent for the last five years.
“The total Daily Subsistence Allowance expenditure grew from Sh 33.41 billion which is 0.33 per cent of GDP in FY 2018/2019 to Sh 37.87 billion, which is 0.26 per cent of GDP in FY 2022/2023,” said SRC.
Regarding the public wage bill trends in relation to the nominal GDP ratio, the Commission noted that they are projected to reduce marginally from 7.58 per cent in FY 2022/2023 to 7.19 per cent in FY 2023/2024.
It also indicated that the wage bill to ordinary revenue ratio is projected to take a trajectory from 43.54 per cent in FY 2022/2023 to 40.45 per cent in FY 2023/2024, adding that the total wage bill is projected to continue growing, but at a slightly slower rate of 6.37 per cent in FY 2023/2024.
An analysis of the Economic Survey 2023 shows that Kenya’s total workforce stands at 12 million, out of which approximately 2 million are in the formal sector, which includes government civil service, parastatals, and private sector employees.
It adds that wage payments in the public service grew by 4.8 per cent in FY 2021/2022 and grew further by 6.5 per cent to Sh 1,100 billion in FY 2022/2023.
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission’s mandate is to set and regularly review the remuneration and benefits of all state officers and to advise the National and county governments on the remuneration and benefits of all other public officers.
By Bernadette Khaduli
