John Tonui is the postmaster-general and CEO of the Postal Corporation of Kenya (Posta). ILLUSTRATION | JOSEPH BARASA | NMG
John Tonui took over as postmaster-general and CEO of the Postal Corporation of Kenya (Posta) first in an acting capacity in December 2022.
In March 2023, the board confirmed his appointment.
Mr Tonui, a former HR and administration manager at Posta now finds himself between two rocks. He took over when the agency was in bad financial shape. Posta is owed debts running into billions of shillings and staff morale has been low due to unpaid salaries that were settled last week. Will he resuscitate this sleeping logistical giant?
Why would you declare all management positions vacant?
The new organisational structure is to reduce the wage bill ratio from the current 82 percent to 50 percent by the end of the new Corporate Strategic Plan period from 2023 to 2027. Postal Corporation of Kenya has 2,360 staff and the approved structure requires 1,860, thus declaring an excess of 500 as of today. The new organisation structure is lean and business-focused, eliminating all forms of duplication in business processes and service delivery.
How many jobs will you let go at the end of the exercise? Who will go and what criteria will you use to let them go? How much will you save?
It’s clear that PCK has an excess of about 500 staff as per the approved staff complement. According to our Human Resource Manpower Planning data, over 200 staff will have retired by June 30, 2024, through natural attrition. The figure will go down further by June 30, 2025, to about 350 staff through the same process of natural attrition, thus meeting the approved staff establishment objective.
The process will be open, fair and transparent and the board will not force any officer in the corporation to retire as this is a voluntary exercise. Those in senior managerial positions such as PCK 2, general managers, PCK 3, managers in job group PCK 4, and assistant managers who are not successful or do not wish to defend their current positions will either be re-deployed or given an option of early retirement as per the Public Service Commission guidelines.
Once the approved staff establishment is realised, the corporation is projected to make a saving of more than Sh300 million annually and the figure can translate to about Sh500 million considering expenses such as medical, pension and other administrative costs.
IEBC and Huduma Centres are among your biggest debtors. Is it almost appearing like one government entity is killing another?
The IEBC has already disbursed Sh550 million by today (Monday, December 11, 2023) to the corporation’s accounts. We expect the balance of half a billion to be settled by June 30, 2024, or earlier once the Government clears all the pending bills.
In the Huduma Secretariat, the PCK relationship is mutual as the mandate of both State agencies is to serve the public. The government is addressing the outstanding debts owed to the corporation by Huduma.
What are the funding models you are exploring?
We are looking at Public-Private partnerships (PPP). We are looking into key projects such as improving technology, and refurbishing or upgrading postal infrastructure to meet the new market demand. PCK plans to digitise all its services and expand access to postal services to the doorsteps or devices of customers. We also plan to have fulfilment centres for all citizens to access short-term warehouses across the country, expand port operations for cargo, and modernise the city square office of exchange to support more than 10,000 item processing for import and export for large and Micro Small and Medium Enterprise clients.
We are also looking into partnerships that will reskill the staff to take on new ideas and grow the mail, postal and payments service delivery.
How much is Posta expecting from the Universal Service Fund from July 2024 to enhance infrastructure, fleet acquisition and digitisation?
The Corporation has requested the Fund to support the corporation’s access to about Sh2.56 billion for three years starting from July 1, 2024. The funding will enable the corporation to meet the Universal Service Obligation principles of basic communication through the Post Office.
How many branches do you plan to close to cut costs? What are you doing to uplift the face of PCK?
The impact of technological substitution has forced the corporation to temporarily close a total of about 125 postal offices, leaving 500 resulting in a loss of business opportunities, especially financial and agency services.
The 125 are among the 300 loss-making offices whose annual operating cost is estimated at Sh1 billion.
Who else owes you?
The corporation has more than 1,000 contracts related to various businesses and most of the service providers’ entities are active. The few business entities that are not servicing their contractual obligation are being pursued through various recovery mechanisms or termination. The regional managers are undertaking the task of sales and debt collection under the guidance of the management.
Posta plans to put workers on performance contracts. How will it work out?
The Corporation adopted the Performance Contracting Management system through the Balanced Scorecard model in July 2019. All staff are expected to negotiate, agree and sign smart targets annually.
The performance targets should have Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Result-oriented and Time-bound principles. In the past, the approach has not been effectively implemented for various reasons, including a lack of proper guidance and supervision. The Board has issued firm instructions that successful managers and officers through the interview process will implement the letter and spirit of the Performance Management System through the Balanced Scorecard Model.
Those who fail to perform as per their performance contracts will be reprimanded accordingly, including dismissal at the end of the financial year.
