Public servants earned an extra Ksh 1.6 billion wages in the financial year ended June 30, 2023 according to latest data by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
This comes as the commission projects total wage bill to hit Ksh 1.2 trillion in the current financial year.
The fourth quarter wage bill bulletin by the commission indicates that in the period between April and June this year alone, public institutions made requests totaling Ksh 2.2 billion out of which only Ksh 1.7 billion was approved by the commission.
“The requests received included 54 on allowances and benefits, 11 on collective bargaining agreements, 3 on salary reviews, and 2 on bonus. The total value of advice for FY 2022/23 amounted to Ksh 4,273,782,553, representing 52.26 per cent of the value of requests received,” said SRC.
Cumulatively, public service institutions sought the commission’s approval for personal emoluments totaling Ksh 8.2 billion compared to Ksh 20.5 billion worth of requests in the FY2021/22.
According to SRC wage payments in the public service grew by 4.8 per cent in FY 2021/22, and projected to grow further by 6.5 per cent to Ksh 1.1 billion in FY 2022/2023 from Ksh 1.04 trillion in the previous financial year.
National Government personal emoluments In the fourth quarter of FY 2022/23 is projected to grow 10.6pc to Ksh 152.33 billion compared to Ksh 137.8 billion in a similar period in FY 2021/22.
“The total expenditure is projected to increase from Ksh 405.82 billion in the third quarter to Ksh 577,87 billion in the fourth quarter. Although the total personal emoluments is expected to grow in absolute terms, PE as a share of the total revenue is projected to reduce from 23pc in the third quarter to 16pc in the fourth quarter of FY 2022/23,” SRC stated.
On the other hand, the data shows that county governments are still struggling to bring down their wage bill as a proportion of the total revenue which stood at 43.6pc and 38.9pc for FY 2021/22 and 2022/2023 respectively which is above the PFM Regulations, 2015 at recommended ratio of 35pc.
In total, counties are expected to spend a total of 202.2 billion in wages in the FY2022/23 from Ksh 190.1 billion in the previous financial year.
Nonetheless, SRC projects wage bill to nominal GDP ratio to reduce marginally to 7.6 in FY 2022/23, and 7.2pc in FY 2023/24.
This ratio is projected to decline towards 7.5pct, which is the average for developing countries, and 7pc, which is the internationally desirable level.
The total wage bill is projected to continue growing, but at a rate of 6.4pc in FY 2022/23, and 6.4pc in FY 2023/24.
