The government has hinted it may lay off civil servants to ease pressure on the exchequer as a cash crunch that saw it delay salaries and payments to counties continues to bite.

Delayed March salaries for public sector workers signal a looming financial crisis as civil servants trade union threaten to down their tools. Speaking during a televised interview on Monday night, the chairperson of the President’s Economic Advisory Council, David Ndii termed Kenya’s situation a “perfect storm”, adding that “we are going to have a turbulence”.

Citing what happened in the 90s when the government was faced with a similar situation, the State’s top economic adviser said to solve the problem, “we retrenched civil servants”. Ndii who called for sobriety in terms of spending admitted that there are some some excesses in government that can be done without.

“They are not large in terms of quantum, but in term of signaling, they are bad,” he said. To steer the ship to safer grounds, he said that the Kenya Kwanza government will no longer go for mega infrastructure projects because they are avenues for corruption. This is a stark contrast from its predecessor, the Jubilee government, which had a huge appetite for mega infrastructure projects.

Mega projects

According to Ndii the mega projects are corruption-laden, a burden that is later passed down to common citizens in the form of debt service. “We are not doing them. You have heard me campaign against those mega infrastructure projects. Another way of calling it is a campaign against corruption,” he said.

“This year alone, we are going to pay Sh120 billion for a certain project which people are celebrating. The corruption was in that project. The money was eaten, we are now paying the debt. If you want to look for corruption look in the debt service,” he added.

Some of the mega infrastructure projects Kenya has undertaken in the recent past include the Sh88 billion Nairobi expressway, the Standard Gauge Railway (Sh380 billion), Kenol-Marua Road and dualling of the Northern bypass, among others. Projects currently underway include the Nairobi Railway City, various affordable housing projects and several dams spread across the country.

To ring-fence the Hustler Fund from corruption, the government has left its management to the private sector. No public official has access to it.

Hustler Fund is a government fund that lets Kenyan Citizens borrow money through their cell phones. It was begun with a startup capital of Sh50Billion given by the government. The fund is fully automated and is run by an engine provided by the telcos, according to Ndii.

Digital platforms

To curb corruption and wastage in government interventions such as the fertiliser subsidy, the government has pledged to minimise its role in projects, opting instead to link suppliers and the end consumers. Additionally, the government will leverage on digital platforms to seal corruption loopholes.

“There is no public procurement. That’s where corruption happens when you put out tenders,” he said. Similarly, the government plans to reduce its participation in the health sector and will henceforth concern itself mostly with the development of policy and regulatory framework.