By IMMACULATE KARAMBU

Public servants trained with tax payers' money will now be forced to stay longer in the Civil Service, following a review of exit rules aimed at arresting the loss of skilled manpower to the private sector.

Vague guidelines on bonding of public servants has accounted for many employees crossing over to the private sector urged on by better pay and clearer career paths, officials at the Ministry of State for Public Service said. Now, the Public Service ministry is tightening the rules that will see the trained staff issue a three-month notice before quitting, serve for a longer bonding period and secure two guarantors - who must be public servants of the same or a higher rank.

Previously, there were no restrictions on guarantors as long as they were Kenyans and above 21 years. The ministry has also boosted the monitoring and enforcement of the bond terms by delegating the responsibility of watching over the bonded employees to their immediate supervisors. Previously, only the Public Service ministry had this oversight role.

â€Å"We have tightened the bonding rules and enhanced monitoring because the pace at which we are losing skilled employees has been on the rise in the past decade,â€Â� said Mr Titus Ndambuki, the permanent secretary at the Public Service ministry. â€Å"There were days when brain drain was actually considered as a gain. Now we have moved to say that the public sector must benefit from talents grown within and knowledge acquired through training funded by taxpayers,â€Â� added Mr Ndambuki. Since Independence, staff training has been embraced as one of the ways of scaling up productivity of the public service workforce.

Countries such as Russia, Britain and the USA have occasionally played host to public staff from Kenya, but factors such as low salaries, low motivation and non-conducive work environments have led such staff to either opt to quit the public service for private establishments or seek greener pastures in the diaspora. Middle level civil servants, mainly with post-graduate qualifications or first degrees backed by astute on- the- job training, have been shifting to the private sector where there are better terms of services and reward-based performance, including bonuses and stock options.

Though the government has also managed to head-hunt for top positions such as permanent secretaries from the private sector using pay as a bait, it has been unable to offer salaries that come nearer those in the private sector to middle level personnel in the ' M' and 'P' job groups. This has sparked increased job movements within this segment with specialised staff such as lawyers, medical practitioners, IT experts, economists and specialised engineers most affected.

This is coming at a moment when human capital is emerging as the most sought after resource in the production system and an arsenal for companies that are seeking growth, which has heightened poaching in the market place, including within the private sector.

For the government, the urgency of reviewing the bonding guidelines is informed by Kenya's shift towards a devolved government, which Mr Ndambuki reckons will create additional pressure to attract and retain talent as most responsibilities that were being handled in Nairobi will now be delegated to the counties. Under the bonding terms, which have been in place since the 1980s, those trained between six months and one year will have to serve for one year in the public service after completion of their studies.

Those in school for between one year and two years will serve for two years while staff trained for more than two years to three years must work for the government for at least three years before shifting to greener pastures.

Public servants sponsored for more than three years will serve as per the duration of the course, but not exceeding five years. But a new addition to the retention terms is that the duration of the bond period shall be extended should the cost of the training be higher than the set minimum, signalling those sponsored for training outside the country or for specialised courses such as medicine will have to serve longer in the public service.

Another addition to the guidelines is that civil servants attending courses of less than six months such as seminars will also be bonded depending on the cost of the training. â€Å"Where the organisation considers the value of such courses to be high and constraining the organisation's training budget, the officer will be bonded for a minimum period of one year, but not exceeding five years,â€Â� said Mr Ndambuki.

The cost of the bonds will include tuition fees, living allowances and gross salary for the duration of the course, which workers trained by taxpayers would be expected to pay should they quit for the private sector before the bond matures. The rules have been tightened as the bonded employees will now be required to issue a three-month notice of their intention to switch jobs to the private sector putting, the Civil Service in line with practices in private companies.

Previously, a month's notice was enough, but still few public servants observed the rule with a number of them earning salaries for months even after quitting employment and taking up jobs outside the public sector. Under the new bond terms, immediate supervisors of employees under retention will be required to submit quarterly performance reports to the Public Service ministry.

Their names will also be circulated to other data systems such as the Kenya Revenue Authority and in the event of default to the Credit Reference Bureaus, which will make it easier to bring to account those who breach the bonds. Public servants paying for their own fees, a group that has increased in number with the proliferation of private universities and the opening of public universities to self-sponsored students, will have to pay back for working hours spent attending the courses.

The new rules will cover workers in the central government, teachers and university lecturers, employees of state corporations such as Kenya Power, Kenya Re and Kenya Pipeline Company as well as local authorities. The military will be excluded from the rules. Kenyan firms are finding it harder to attract and retain skilled employees as the growth of the Kenyan economy gathers pace.

This pressure to attract and retain talent in a competitive labour market, though lucrative for workers with special skills, is forcing employers to widen the scope of performance-related compensation leaving in their hands a heavy labour cost burden. â€Å"At the end of the day, we bet more on people than strategies, but the pool of talent is being stretched,â€Â� Mr Adan Mohamed, the Barclays Bank chief executive recently told the Business Daily in an earlier interview.

Previously, the talent war was restricted to the private sector, but the government has recently been drawn in as its most skilled personnel are sought by the fast expanding ICT sector and contractors seeking people with clout and knowledge of how the public sector functions. Information Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo says, the government has lost eight officers that it trained to tackle cybercrime because they earn better in the private sector, especially on financial institutions and telecommunication firms.

â€Å"The greatest challenge we are facing is the ability to retain IT officers capable of tackling cyber-crime due to poor pay that has seen us lose a number to the private sector,â€Â� said Dr Ndemo. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) estimates that loss of staff has a hidden cost equivalent to 50 per cent of an officer's annual pay. This includes opportunities lost, search for replacements and the training of recruits.

ikarambu@ke.nationmedia.com