The Laikipia County government has set aside Sh 700million of its proposed Sh8.1 billion 2021/2022 budget to clear outstanding pending bills.
Finance Executive Murungi Ndai confirmed the report and said the move follows a letter to him from the National Treasury Principal Secretary Julius Muia asking the county to resolve the issue of pending bills by forming a committee.
This is after a group of local contractors appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene and compel the devolved unit to clear over Sh100 million pending bills. The irate contractors said they were facing financial constraints after being auctioned due to failure to clear bank loans they had acquired to roll out various development projects at the grassroots. The entrepreneurs availed documents to the media to prove that they had rendered services to the county government.
Unverified pending bills
“We are committed to ensuring liquidity into the market. This will involve prioritising payment of pending bills as the first charge by all the departments. We have set Sh700 million for this purpose,” the county’s Finance Executive Murungi Ndai said.
“Some of my officers and I risk been taken to jail if we pay unverified pending bills to the contractors. We don’t want to pay these pending bills while on our way to King’ong’o prison. I sought the indulgence of the Attorney General and he advised me to conduct scrutiny at the grassroots of all projects before making any payment to contractors,” he added.
Huge spenders in the annual budget estimates are health at Sh2.1 billion, infrastructure at Sh1.7 billion, pending bills and public administration at Sh700 million each and county assembly at Sh536 million. Other sectors that have taken a big share of allocation are education, water and finance departments at Sh463 million 443 million and Sh391 million respectively. Trade department will get Sh112 million while other county entities will share the balance.
