Performance Contracting (PC) in Kenya is a flagship public sector reform tool aimed at improving efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability in the management and delivery of public services.
Performance Contracting was initially introduced in State Corporations in 2004 and has since been rolled out across the entire public sector:
- Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs)
- State Corporations (SCs)
- County Governments (rolled out following devolution)
- Individual Staff: The institutional PC targets are cascaded down through the organization using the Staff Performance Appraisal System (SPAS), linking individual employee performance to the overall institutional contract.
Ever since 2004, the public service in Kenya is widely incorporating this model as a robust, systematic framework to transplant a results-oriented management that has previously been pegged on process and bureaucracy. While its success is undeniable in certain areas, its effectiveness remains a continuous process of refinement, particularly in ensuring the consistent application of rewards and sanctions.
Key Objectives:
- Enhance Service Delivery: To ensure public services are delivered more efficiently and effectively to the citizens.
- Accountability for Results: To hold top-level managers (Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Chief Executive Officers) accountable for achieving specific, pre-agreed results.
- Efficiency in Resource Use: To ensure public resources are focused on attaining key national policy priorities and eliminating wasteful spending.
- Institutionalize a Performance Culture: To embed a culture of performance, transparency, and accountability throughout the public service.
- Alignment: To link institutional goals with national development frameworks like the Kenya Vision 2030 and current government manifestos.
To this end therefore, Alupe University being a part of the public sector as a public university, it is required to apply the Performance Contracting Guidelines to identify and implement performance indicators and specific targets that the university staff have been sensitized through the Matrix of Lawful Consequences for Infractions in the Public Service. The Matrix has been prepared in conformity with the Constitution, employment laws and all other relevant laws. All HR manuals and Codes of Conduct must be revised to be in conformity with the foregoing.
The university has thus adapted performance contacting not only as a management best-practice model, but also for the continuous improvement of performance and efficiency is service delivery, all which are guided by Articles 10 and 232 of the Constitution, which mandate integrity, accountability, and high ethical standards.
By Victoria Magar & Savai Sabwa,
Alupe University Media