Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Monday, June 5, issued two ultimatums to all governors over the settlement of pending bills.
Speaking after a closed-door meeting of the 20th Session of the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC), Gachagua revealed that the government was unable to clear the hefty pending bills in one go.
The DP insisted that the inherited bills were exaggerated and there was a need to interrogate them before making any payments.
“The IBEC meeting has defined the pending bills as valid invoices validly delivered and outstanding at the end of the financial year.
“We have agreed that the governors cannot pay every pending bill without interrogating the authenticity,” Gachagua stated.
As a result, the DP issued a two-week ultimatum to all governors countrywide to form committees to interrogate the pending bills.
“The interrogation will ascertain which bills are payable and which are not,” Gachagua stated, clearly explaining the purpose and outcome of the interrogation.
After the two-week interrogation process, he also ordered that the payable pending bills be forwarded to the national government for further scrutiny.
“There will be a one week to share notes and compare so that there can be mutual agreement on what needs to be paid,” he stated.
Gachagua revealed that many governors, some of whom were serving their first terms, had inherited unexplainable pending bills from the previous administrations.
“Some of the pending bills have no supporting documents and so the governors cannot honour them.
“Should they decide to clear them, they will be held accountable for paying bills that were not procured in the regular manner,” he warned.
On March 22, 2023, the Controller of Budget revealed that counties owed suppliers an accumulative pending bill of Ksh157 billion by the County Executives and Ksh1.63 billion by County Assemblies.
Nairobi County was identified as having the biggest share of pending bills at Ksh100.36 billion.
Other counties with high pending bills were Wajir at Ksh5.59billion, Kiambu at Ksh4.98billion, Mombasa at Ksh4.97 billion, Machakos at Ksh2.88 billion and Muranga at Ksh2.75 billion.
