NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 1 – The Ministry of Treasury and Economic Planning has said that it is committed to clearing pending bills, which stood at over Sh600 billion as of September last year.
National Treasury Permanent Secretary (PS) Chris Kiptoo said that going forward, the state will no longer tolerate the accumulation of pending bills by accounting officers.
The government’s unpaid bills have been rising over the years even as the state struggles to clear arrears amid budgetary constraints.
“We have said that going forward, we shall not tolerate accumulation of pending bills by accounting officers,” PS Kiptoo said.
“So, beginning June last year, we said any bills accumulated in the financial year that ended becomes the first charge of this financial year. So, we expect that to be sorted by every accounting entity. Then going forward, we hope to accumulate but we have a major reform,” he added.
Kiptoo spoke yesterday while hosting the Pending Bills Verification Committee, which had received 1,537 unpaid pending bill requests from firms worth Sh145.5 billion as of January 30, 2024.
The requests are spread across 38 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
“The Government is cognizant of the urgent need to address the Pending Bills threat, releasing the much-needed liquidity, facilitate better economic performance & restore confidence & hope particularly, to the MSEs sector,” the National Treasury said on its X platform.
