Nyeri County Governor Mutahi Kahiga made a case Wednesday for entrenching performance contracts in the devolved units of governance.
According to Kahiga, performance contracting is a top leadership tool for holding executives to account for their performance, for managing, for implementing, and evaluating as well as for rewarding and sanctioning staff.
Asked whether there has been improvement in service delivery since counties adopted performance contracting, the county chief said the system has been effective and has been transformative.
“My county adopted it in 2018 and it has enabled my county to be transformed in terms of growth from county number 47 in world bank assessment to number one in 2019,” he said
Speaking at the ongoing Devolution Conference in Uasin Gishu county, Kahiga noted that an annual performance contract is in his government policy and is mandatory for all departments on an annual basis. He disclosed that the process is guided by technical assistance from the Council of Governors.
The Nyeri County chief highlighted the issue of pending bills as an overarching challenge facing counties that the system has been designed to address.
“Performance contracting has helped Nyeri county to be among the counties with little or no pending bills. Because out rightly we move within a systematic way,” he said
“It speaks volumes for me to highlight the achievements of Nyeri county as attested by the performance contracting process,” he added
the success of performance contracting in Nyeri, Kahiga says, has been made possible by the establishment of a service delivery unit that monitors exactly what is being done and it is headed by an expert in matters of performance management.
“The unit supports in development of performance targets negotiation and vetting of performance targets to ensure that performance indicators are aligned to our county development integrated plan. Sustainable development goals, manifesto, and the approved budget estimates for every financial year,” he said
The governor added; “The unit ensures the performance contracts are signed at the beginning of every financial year and cascaded to all levels and supports their implementation through continuous monitoring,”
President William Ruto has led the way by signing performance contracts at the national level.
