A team of top government officials drawn from transport and treasury ministries will retreat to review the progress in the merging between the Kenya Ports Authority [KPA] and the Kenya Ferry Service [KFS] from Monday.

Senior officials from both ministries are leading the process to accommodate KFS employees into the new structure at the port of Mombasa.

KPA and KFS officials will be in attendance at the four-day retreat in Malindi,Kilifi county to chart the way forward in the merging of the two state corporations.

Both state corporations have formed a team ahead of the retreat with the aim of changing the way of conducting business at the port.

Unconfirmed reports said KFS managing director Bakari Gowa will be deployed at the transport ministry before the process to recruit a new KPA MD is completed.

The post of KFS MD has been reduced to that of a divisional head known as General Manager, services, in the new proposed Human resource management structure.

The move is to change the dynamics of doing business at the port of Mombasa with the re-structuring of operations with a proposal to make managers answer to a head of division under General Managers.

The four-day re-retreat will comprise of teams from each department to hasten the progress of absorbing each other under a simulated system.

In the previous meeting before the retreat both acting KPA managing director Rashid Salim and Gowa were present.

In the proposed new Human resource management structure majority of state corporation departments will be merged in a dynamic way to ease port operation.

According to an establishment source the move to absorb defunct ferry service employees is underway with an option for those not comfortable to work under the new proposed structure to seek for an early retirement package.