I won't pay dubious pending bills, says Mung’aro

Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro has insisted that he won't pay any pending bills, which have been flagged by the Auditor General.

Speaking in Kilfi on Wednesday, Mung’aro said the county inherited Sh1.5 billion pending bills, however, bills worth Sh800 million are disputed.

The governor said the bills are for projects that were done without budgeting.

This comes at a time when there is an uproar among traders who are pushing to be paid.

“I have announced many times and if they have not heard let them hear this today, we will finish the cartel business in this county it is not business as usual anymore,” Mung'aro said.

The governor said to address the issue of pending bills the CECs will be doing the Bill of Quantities for approval with a budget so that when money is available it is allocated promptly.

He said some projects were highly estimated that on record it indicated a Sh30 million expenditure while only Sh10 million was spent.

“All that we are saying now is that the departments will prepare their documentation so that by the time we receive the money we are ready to work,” he said.

The governor said all the accountants, officials in charge of IFMIS and procurement officers have already moved to the treasury department and will operate from there.

He said at one point Sh55 million was lost due the failure of having proper systems of operations.

“We do not want people dealing in sensitive matters seated in Juakali shade in Charo Wa Mae, everybody will sit there (Treasury) is going to be an open-door policy where you sit at a workstation and do your work there,” he said.

County speaker Teddy Mwambire noted that they have information that some amount of money had queries and the Auditor general flagged them that’s why the governor will not honour the payments.

However, he said genuine bills should be paid and those that have issues should wait for proper processes to be followed.

“What is important is to look at the genuine pending bills that need to be paid because some don't even have supporting documents,” he said.

“We don't want a situation where the governor just pays so as to make people happy and then later we get some claims that he misused public funds. We don't want such a situation. Everything should go as per the law."

Mwambire said the governor formed a task force and they are still waiting for its report to make an informed decision.

Some local leaders have, however, asked the governor to pay the pending bills because that is what is hurting the Kilifi economy.

Furaha Chengo, a local leader from Magarini and former ally to the governor said Kilifi is suffering due to unpaid pending bills.

He said it was unfortunate that the governor was always making statements on social yet people were suffering because of pending bills

Chengo said some suppliers have lost property such as vehicles, others have been locked out of their houses and they can't take their children to school because of pending bills.