Lodwar, 5 July, 2024 (Public Communication and Media Relations)
The County Government of Turkana has taken the County Public Service through intensive training on the introduction of Performance Contracting as a deliberate effort aimed at linking development planning to budgeting.
This is in order to ensure maximum benefit out of resource use; enhance capacity and transform the public service to better deliver its services more efficiently and facilitate the achievements of the Governor’s Nine-Point Agenda and the National Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), mainstreamed in the long-term Kenya Vision 2030.
Performance contracting is a key tool for performance management in Turkana County that began in FY’2015/2016 with the sensitisation of all senior staff at the County Departments.
Formation of performance management structure follows through establishment of Departmental Performance Management Committees (DPMC) from Cointy Departments solely to drive performance management process at the County.
The training of DPMCs was done early last June, to facilitate reporting for the FY’2023/2024. The evaluation of PC reports for the FY’2023/2024 will commence once the Departmental reports are submitted by end of July and the performance results will be released by August this year.
Since then up to date, the performance contracting tool has effectively been used to improve service delivery by ensuring that the County Executive Committees (CECs) are accountable for results, and in turn hold those below them accountable.
The performance tool enshrined in the Performance and Efficiency Unit in the Office of the County Secretary, helps to institutionalise performance oriented culture in the Public Service through introduction of an objective performance appraisal system.
The PCs are usually prepared and their targets set in the beginning of every financial year, and performance reporting and evaluation done for the previous financial year to rank the Departments on their performance and efficiency.
The FY’2024/2025 Performance Contracts signing process at the end of the week, will involve all the County Executive Committee members, Office of the County Secretary, County Chief Officers, Directors and their Deputies, and Assistant Directors.
The latter will ensure similar signing exercise will be cascaded to lower cadres, and link specific deliverables and targets to individual officers through Staff Performance Appraisal System (SPAS) anchored on Government Human Resource Information System (GHRIS).
The preparations for the main activity on next week has already started in earnest with Office of the Governor taking lead, while Public Service, Administration and Disaster Management, County Public Service Board, Finance and Economic Planning, Health and Sanitation, Lodwar County Referral Hospital as an entity, Water Services, and Education, Sports and Social Protection finalising on their part.
Other Departments namely; Trade, Gender and Youth Affairs, Lands and Municipalities, Roads, Transport and Public Works, Tourism, Culture, Natural Resources and Climate Change, and Agriculture, Livestock Development and Fisheries have been listed for the same training next week in the build up to the performance contract signing on Friday, July 12, 2024.
