Abstract:
Local authorities are believed to be better placed in provision and delivery of basic services to the people. However, due to poor management and especially lack of comprehensive policies in regard to Human Resource Management, the LA’s have ended up over-employing . Thus spending a large percentage of their recurrent budget on employees emoluments leaving a smaller percentage for maintenance and service delivery. The study used data from Kisumu Municipal Council to show the extent and effect of this bloated work force on the council recurrent budget. The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative data collected from both primary a.nd secondary sources. For primary data, a questionnaire was designed for consumers, employees and management while for secondary sources, data was collected from institutional records, government reports, relevant documents, books and joumals. An overall total of 130 respondents were interviewed. This was because of limited time and financial constraints. Data collected was analysed and results presented in frequencies and percentages in form of tables and graphs. The researcher used Likert scale for measuring service delivery. A simple correlation model, chi-square and T-test were used for testing. The researcher also used factor analysis using several factor loadings to find out the highest surviving co-efficient in the service delivery. These were the most pestering problems to the consumers. Among them was lack of adequate water, street lighting, garbage collection etc. The study also found out that the employee intake practices in place were exposed to loopholes in employee intake system hence prone to abuse and this has serious ramifications on service delivery. Therefore the analysis confirmed the hypothesis of the study that, the increase in number of the lower cadre staff over the last ten years had no significant influence on the service delivery. It also confirmed that the qualification of lower cadre staffs has no significant influence on the service delivery. The study rejected the third hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between service delivery costs and personnel emoluments costs changes over the years. The study therefore recommends strongly that a proper I-LRM policy be put in place and that the council cut down on its expenditures on staff emoluments if the residents of Kisumu were to get better services.
