NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 5 — The Office of the Auditor General on Tuesday revealed that counties have accumulated a total of Sh152.5 billion in pending bills exceeding the Sh148.39 billion outstanding revenue allocation balance.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu made the revelations during an Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) convened by Deputy President William Ruto at his official residence in Karen.
IBEC brings together the Council of Governors, National Treasury and other government agencies mandated to oversee disbursement of allocations and auditing of public expenditures.
CoG Vice Chairman James Ongwae said the counties had only received Sh221.6 billion of the Sh370 billion Equitable Revenue allocation for the 2021/22 Financial Year, despite being two months to the end of the financial year.
“The debts owed to service providers is higher than the remaining disbursement,” Gathungu noted during an IBEC meeting which is chaired by DP Ruto.
The Auditor General also reported that County Assemblies owe Sh2.9 billion in pending bills.
In total the pending bills owed by counties and county assemblies currently stand at Sh155,454,381,788.
As per the disbursement schedule, CoG said the outstanding amount owed stands at 87.34 billion which includes Sh8.26 billion owed to 11 county governments for January allocation and Sh16.20 billion owed to 23 counties for the February allocation.
Another Sh29.6 billion is owed to 47 counties for the March allocation and Sh33.3 billion owed to 47 counties for April allocation.
