The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has awarded Chiefs and their Assistants a new allowance for the extra duties that they perform. The new allowance (extraneous allowance) will not only benefit Chiefs but also other field officers in the ministry of interior and coordination of national government (up to Regional Commissioners).

According to the Ministry of Interior, the awarding of the extraneous allowance will boost the morale of the Field officers since it will be in commensurate with the nature of their work and the risks that they face in the field.

The new award is as a result of the extra responsibilities, extraneous nature of their roles, fairness and equity relative to all other public servants

“The Ministry gladly acknowledges this pertinent move geared towards motivating the officers with a view to improving service delivery,” said the Principal Secretary, Dr. (Eng.) Karanja Kibicho via a circular.

Kibicho said that besides routine coordination of security services across the country, the mandate of the administrators had in the recent past been expanded through executive orders No. 3/2014, No. 1/2016, and No. 1/2018 (revised).

“This is in addition to executive orders No. 1 of 2019 and No. 2 of 2020, which contain presidential directives aimed at strengthening service delivery up to the grassroots level, he added.

Read the contents from Eng. Kibicho below;

TSC Allowances.

The new allowance comes at a time when the SRC has completed the exercise of viewing the allowances given to government employees.

already, the Commission has reviewed a number of allowances that teachers currently receive.

Reviewed TSC allowances

TSC allowances that will be restructured include:

Annual Leave Allowance

It is an allowance that is paid once in a year to teachers while on leave; usually paid with the January salaries. The Commission is intending to review this allowance due to the following reasons:

The wide banding of job group eligible for Annual Leave Allowance is discriminative;
There is a disparity in the rates payable in the Public Service.
Some public sector institutions pay Annual Leave Allowance as a percentage of the basic salary, other institutions pay Annual Leave Allowance as an absolute figure.
Some public institutions allow for commutation of non-utilized leave days for cash.

Consequently, this is how the annual leave should be paid;

The Annual Leave Allowance shall be paid in absolute figure and not a percentage of basic salary. Indeed, this how TSC pays the annual leave for teachers and hence no much changes are expected here.

The SRC shall review the banding structure in the Annual Leave Allowance payments to provide clarity in banding and rates payable by the teacher’s grade.

Hardship Allowance

This is an allowance that is paid to teachers deployed in designated hardship areas. The allowance is meant to compensate teachers working in the Hardship Areas to compensate them for lack of basic social services and amenities, security risk, harsh climatic conditions, isolation and family separation.

Some teachers are set to lose the hardship allowance because the designated hardship areas shall be reviewed, by the relevant government institution/s to reflect changes in designated hardship areas arising from benefits of devolution and Equalization Fund. This is because devolution has implied that Counties are no longer necessarily hardship areas since they are receiving equalization funds to promote development in the counties thereby addressing the characteristics of hardship areas.

Responsibility Allowance

This is an allowance paid to teachers in administrative posts. SRC has since abolished this allowance because the purpose for which the allowance is paid has been factored in the relative worth of the job through the job undertaken by the Commission. Indeed, this allowance was incorporated in the basic salaries for teachers holding administrative roles.

Medical Allowance

The allowances are paid alongside monthly salary based on the job group to cater for outpatient medical treatment. The allowance has now been abolished. Teachers lost their medical allowance some time back; and, part of it is paid to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF; which is a statutory deduction) and the remaining goes to the TSC procured medical insurance scheme, AON-Minet.

List of TSC Allowances and Benefits to be Retained

The following allowances shall not be modified:

S/N	Allowance Name
1	Commuter Allowance
2	House Allowance
3	Disability Guide Allowance
4	Transfer Allowance

New allowances for chiefs and their assistants as teachers wait for new CBA