The county government of Kisumu on Monday appealed to contractors and suppliers to be patient, reiterating their commitment to pay them as soon as money is released from the national treasury.
This follows intense pressure from the contractors and suppliers to push the county government to pay them for jobs already done and goods supplied to the outfit.
Kisumu county government owes its contractors and suppliers Sh1.3 billion.
The contractors have persistently complained about delayed payments through the media.
But the county government on the other hand stated that the delay has been occasioned by the late release of money by the national treasury.
This has nearly grounded operations in all the counties.
According to the chiefs officer in charge of public communication John Oywa, the Kisumu county government has so far paid Sh 400 million to the contractors and suppliers as pending bills.
He said that at the beginning of the financial year, the county government owed about Sh1.7 billion to contractors.
"With the disbursements so far received this financial year, the county government has paid approximately Sh 400 Million, leaving a balance of about Sh 1.3 Billion," he said on Monday.
Oywa noted that there's still a budget balance of about Sh 1 billion unutilized this financial year.
"We have processed a lot more pending bills in the IFMIS system awaiting disbursement from National Treasury to pay," the chief officer said.
He further noted that there has been no disbursement for December 2022, January, February and March 2023.
"This delay in disbursement is not just for Kisumu County but for all county governments in the republic of Kenya," he said.
"It’s a sad state of affairs for the entire country. We understand the pains of genuine business firms that are yet to be paid," he added.
Oywa pointed out that the governor Anyang Nyong'o-led administration was doing everything possible to ensure payments are made in this financial year in accordance with the provisions of the current budget.
"We are committing to do so, when eceive funds from the national government and our own source revenue," he said.
