Nairobi Kenya, Feb 23 – The Controller of Budget (CoB), Margaret Nyakango, has warned that the National and County Governments’ unpaid bills stand at Sh637.91 billion.
Nyakango revealed the information to the County Public Investments and Special Funds Committee, which is headed by Vihiga Senator Godfrey Otsotsi.
The ballooning debt she attributed to the state’s failure to pay bills for delivered goods and services.
“As of December, last year, ministries had pending bills of 80.2 billion, State cooperations/parastatals had pending bills worth 400.6 billion, while counties had 157.91 worth of pending bills,” she told the committee.
Nyakango also blamed entities for diverting funds that were meant to pay the bills.
“Some of the key reasons for the huge pending bills is the diversion of payments from the rightful payees to others who are not in the list that I authorize for payments,” she said.
“This happens a lot, especially during transitions to the new administration. Our small research shows that the level of voided transactions in 2022 was 10 times more than the normal levels experienced years before the change to the new administration.”
The Controller of the Budget, on the other hand, urged the Senate to move quickly on legislation to restructure government operations and strengthen checks and balances.
“If you anticipate that you get a certain amount of revenue and that fails to happen, then you will incur pending bills,” she said.
“Even if there is cash in the accounts, the procurement module on Integrated Financial Management System (Ifmis) is activated. Therefore, you cannot make any payments and it is the elephant in the room.”
