GAZETTE NOTICE NO. 3156

REPORT UNDER SECTION 59 (1) (f) OF THE COUNTY GOVERNMENTS ACT, 2012 BACKGROUND OF THE BOARD Migori County Public Service Board (MCPSB) was established on 25th July, 2013 under section 57 of County Governments Act, 2012. It is a body corporate with perpetual succession and a seal. It is capable of suing and being sued in its corporate name. The Board is not subject to control or direction by any person or authority in the performance of its functions. Migori County Public Service Board consists of a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, four Board Members and a Secretary appointed by the Governor with approval of the County Assembly. The current board was sworn-in on 14th March, 2020 to serve for a period of six (6) years. BOARD MEMBERS Name Designation Sub-county Jared Odhiambo Opiyo Chairman Awendo Jemimah Adhiambo Were Vice-Chair Rongo Mwita Range Maroa Member Kuria West 1st April, 2021 THE KENYA GAZETTE 1505 Name Designation Sub-county Enock Odhiambo Achieng Member Suna East Phoebe Nahashon Adhiambo Member Nyatike Omwa Hesbon Otieno Member Uriri Martin Shikuku Arondo Secretary/CEO Rongo VISION OF MCPSB To be a leading County Public Service Board which is a bench mark for a high performing, dynamic and ethical County Public Service in Kenya and beyond. MISSION OF MCPSB To transform Migori County Public Service to a vibrant, efficient, effective, professional and ethical for the realization of the County Development Goals. CORE VALUES (a) Integrity (b) Rule of Law (c) Professionalism (d) Inclusivity (e) Equality EVALUATION ON IMPLEMENTATION OF VALUES AND PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNANCE The functions of Migori County Public Service Board are as enshrined in section 59 of the County Governments Act, 2012. The Public Service Board is mandated under section 59 (1) (f) of the County Governments Act to evaluate and report to the Migori County Assembly on the extent to which the values and principles referred to in Articles 10 and 232 are complied with in the Migori County Public Service. The evaluation covers county public service with the exception of the county assembly that has as oversight role. The evaluation for the year 2020 clustered the values and principles into ten thematic areas, designed indicators for each and identified relevant data sources. The data and other information specific to departments were obtained through the evaluation tools while other relevant information were obtained from oversight institutions, reports by the Office of the Controller of Budget and information from the Department of Finance and Economic Planning findings show significant levels of compliance: Good governance, transparency and accountability were assessed on diverse dimensions, namely, the existence of reviewed organisation structures and succession management; adoption of e-procurement; performance management and anticorruption measures. On each dimension, the departments had made significant efforts but there is a need for the county executive committee to adopt and approve a staff establishment for the whole county public service. On performance management, the board recommends that the performance management framework be implemented and cascaded to all the staff in the county public service. All departments should liaise with EACC to carry out corruption perception surveys in a an effort to improve to improve service delivery. Professionalism and ethics in the public service were evaluated on the basis of four indicators, namely, availability of policy documents on ethics at the disposal of the accounting officers; training for professionalism; membership to professional bodies and declaration of income, assets and liabilities. All these indicators recorded an average level of compliance with declaration of income, assets and liabilities reporting a compliance level of 100 percent. Provision for diversity was assessed by indicators that exclusively focused on the staff who were deployed in the various departments. Accordingly, the four indicators that were used were: ethnic representation, gender representation and disability mainstreaming. The representation in the public service of the various ethnic communities appears relatively proportional to the county population. The representation by gender meets the required threshold. However, the interpretation of these findings should be tempered by the census of all staff in county payroll. The board shall prepare and implement an employment equity plan to deal with any inequalities that maybe existing. Fair competition and merit in appointments and promotion were assessed on the basis of three indicators, namely, fair competition and merit, advertisement of job vacancies, representation in appointments. All the indicators revealed a high level of compliance since there are already clear guidelines on all matters employment and promotion. The board shall explore more means of advertising of vacancies to increase the reach to a wider population. On promotions, the board recommends that departmental chief officers commence the performance appraisal which shall be used as a basis of merit. Efficiency, effectiveness and economic use of resources was assessed on the basis of several dimensions chief among them alignment of budget with planning. All the departmental budgets were aligned with the county integrated development plan 2018-2022. On the indicator of budget absorption, the departments did well on the recurrent side but performed dismally on the side of development. Another indicator under this area was the allocative budget efficiency and utilization. A majority of the departments failed to meet the recommended ratios for both recurrent to development expenditure and personnel emoluments to operations and maintenance. This can be attributed to several dynamics chief among them being the lack of proper disaggregation of staff data per department in the payroll and also the nature of some departments which were leaning on both extremes of the recurrent/development expenditure continuum. The Board hereby recommends that the department of finance and economic planning puts in place strategies to lead the county towards adherence to these key guidelines. Sustainable development was assessed on the dimension of pending bills as a percentage of the allocated budget. It was noted that all departments had pending bills which hampered the planning process for the subsequent years. It was also noted that most departments were also not aware that suppliers had been paid to what extend at the close of the financial year. The board hereby recommends that the departments be furnished with regular printouts of IFMIS by-products on payments made to suppliers. The board further recommends that the directorate of procurement should come up with strategies on how to mitigate the delays occasioned by long procurement processes. Responsive, prompt, impartial and equitable service. This principle was assessed on the basis of five proxy indicators, namely, automation of services, existence of service charters, customer care desks, suggestion boxes and complaint registers. The departments faired averagely on these indicators though there were only three departments with service charters well displayed. The departments are yet to fully take advantage of the recent technological advancements. The overall conclusion on this thematic area is that there is a lot of room for improvement in this area since it is a quick win that requires minimal to zero budget to actualize. The board hereby recommends that accounting officers print and display service charters at all points of service delivery. The board further recommends that all departments carry out customer satisfaction survey and report on the same to the board periodically. Participation in policy making and implementation was assessed on the basis of two indicators - public participation policy guidelines and stakeholder forums. The study reveals that only the department of public service management had a policy on public participation. The number of forums were relatively low which can be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic and also the lack of proper record keeping as far the attendance to the same is concerned. The board hereby recommends that the other departments follow suit in domesticating the policy in order to meet the constitutional requirements. On the aspect of the number of forums, the departments should endeavor to prepare back to office reports for accountability for funds used to conduct the same. Upholding of human rights in the public service was assessed based on the information obtained from the department and public offices. To this extent, the evaluation concluded that compliance with the principle was fairly good though there is need for future evaluations to source data from oversight bodies. Even though there are no reported cases of human rights violations in the departments, the board recommends that the departments source for and display posters to create awareness on human rights. The board shall endeavor to obtain information on the same from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. Devolution and sharing of power was assessed on the basis of participation of the departments in joint committees with bodies 217 THE KENYA GAZETTE 1st April, 2021 1506 1506 outside the county government, percentage of officers deployed to sub counties and number of community projects completed in the period under review. This study reveals that all the departments had participated in joint ventures with partners of common interests which is an effort that should be applauded. The Health and Education departments were leading with the percentage of staff devolved to sub counties due to the nature of services they offer. Other departments should follow suit to strengthen devolution. On the number of projects completed, there is need to carry out a thorough monitoring and evaluation to ascertain the concentration of projects in sub-counties and wards. It was noted that the departments have done a commendable job as far as seeking partnerships and adhering to donor requirements is concerned. The board recommends that departments should double the efforts in order to boost the financial and technical resources that are already at the county’s disposal. RANKED PERFORMANCE OF THE DEPARTMENTS AS PER THE EVALUATION After carrying the evaluation for the various departments, the board ranked them using weighted scores from the outcomes under each indicator. The table below shows the rankings. Rank Department Weighted Scores 1 Medical Services 77.875 2 Public Health Services 75.625 3 Public Service Management 72.39 4 Agriculture 71.3825 5 Finance and Economic Planning 65.7625 6 Trade, Tourism and Co-operative Development 59.715 7 Lands and Physical Planning 57.1725 8 Roads and Public Works 57.1025 9 Education 56.33 10 Water and Energy 49.3125 11 Livestock, Veterinary and Fisheries 45.7775 12 Environment, Natural Resources and Disaster Management 44.2825 13 Youth, Culture and Sports 42.3 14 ICT 29.66 The board wishes to commend all the departments that participated in the evaluation for the overwhelming response. The board shall proceed to reward exemplary performance and give specific feedback to enable the departments improve on the various thematic areas evaluated. PROPOSED INTERVENTIONS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NATIONAL VALUES AND PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNANCE In order to ensure that the values and principles evaluated in this report are implemented effectively, the board commits to undertake the following:- 1. Carry out quarterly visits to the departments to ascertain the levels of compliance at that level. 2. Liaise with other stakeholders to seek meaningful partnerships towards the implementation the values in the county public service. 3. Share the recommendations of this report with the departments for quality improvement purposes. 4. Carry out capacity building sessions for staff on values and principles in the county public service. 5. Organize sensitization workshops for staff at all levels on the importance of the values and principles. 6. Publish and distribute handbooks and policy guidelines on the values and principles of governance. 7. Monitor and ensure action is taken on all public officers who violate the values and principles. MARTIN S. ARONDO, Secretary/CEO, Migori County Public Service Board. MR/1943740