Salaries and Remuneration Commission’s (SRC) report on the wage bill for the financial year (FY) 2024/2025 reveals the national government personnel emolument (PE) is projected to rise in the second quarter of 2024/2025 financial year to Ksh212.53 billion.

A press release by SRC, the commission says the rise in the personnel emolument is from Ksh170.29 billion recorded in the same period in the second quarter of second quarter 2023 /2024 financial year.

The statement further notes that despite the growth, the personnel emolument total revenue ratio is projected to decrease from 31.7 per cent to 25.7 per cent over the same period, remaining within the recommended threshold.

The first quarter starts from July 2024 to September 2024 while the second quarter is from October 2024 to December 2024.

According to SRC, the national government personnel emolument in the first quarter 2024/2025 was estimated to Ksh111.09 billion compared to Ksh120.99 billion in the same period in 2023/2024 financial year, adding that the personnel emolument, which excludes national security and consolidated fund services declined from 23.53 per cent to 19.72 per cent.

On county governments’ expenditure on personnel emolument, SRC announced that the personnel emolument is projected to increase from Ksh38.69 billion in the first quarter to Ksh52.16 billion in the second quarter of 2024/2025financial year, which represents 34.8 per cent growth.

“The PE to ordinary revenue ratio is projected to decline from 44.01 per cent in the first quarter to 41.3 per cent in second quarter,” stated the statement.

SRC further notes that the county government personnel emolument remained above the 35 per cent threshold set in the Public Finance Management (PFM) Regulations Act (2015) in the second quarter, adding that only Nakuru, Kwale, Busia, Tana River, Narok and Kilifi counties complied with the PFM Act 2012 threshold of 35 per cent personnel emolument to revenue ratio.

The county government expenditure on personnel emolument in the first quarter of 2024/2025 financial year was estimated at Ksh40.47 billion, which is slightly lower than the Ksh41.79 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2023/2024 financial year.

During second quarter of 2024/2025 financial, the commission received requests from public institution for it to make decisions, of which it managed to issue a total of 73 advice, with allowances and benefits accounting for 64.4per cent, job evaluation and salary structures was 24.7 per  cent, while the collective bargaining negotiations was at 11.0 per cent.

In the second quarter, SRC received 174 requests which remained pending, with 39 of them awaiting additional information from institutions.

Some of the requests did not receive advice as they were awaiting the constitution of the incoming commission following the end of the six-year term of the former SRC. The 73 advice issued were done by the SRC secretariat based on existing polices and precedence.

“During the first quarter of FY2024/2025, we received 88 requests from public institutions, valued at Ksh30.35 billion, compared to Ksh39.80 billion received in the first quarter of FY 2023/2024, we approved Ksh6.45 billion, resulting in a saving of Ksh3.8 billion for the public service,” SRC stated.

Out of the 88 requests, 13 were on collective bargaining agreements reviews, 62 on allowances and benefits, four on bonus while nine were on job evaluation and salary reviews.

On the public service wage payments, the commission announced that the payments grew from Ksh1.04 trillion in 2021/2022 financial year to Ksh1.1 trillion in FY 2022/2023, and was estimated to grow to Ksh1.17 trillion in the 2023/2024 financial year.

• A Tell Media / KNA report / By Bernadette Khaduli