Failure to pay Sh160 million to contractors might cost three senior Isiolo county officials a stay in police cells and prosecution.
Chief finance officer Salad Adano, finance executive Abdinassir Daud and county secretary Ahmed Galgalo Guyo are yet to honour a consent to pay contractors and suppliers deal they entered before chief magistrate SM Mungai on August 13, 2019.
Already a magistrate's court has issued warrants of arrest to the officers. The money is owed for the supply of relief food and construction services during the previous administration.
The contractors and suppliers sued the county government in 2017.
Magistrate Mungai ordered that Sh80 million be paid on or before December 15, 2019, and the balance of Sh83 million on or before September 2020.
Treasury CS Ukur Yatani has directed that counties that are yet to clear pending bills to be denied money from the national government.
In neighbouring Meru county, Governor Kiraitu Murungi recently agreed to pay Sh723 million owed to contractors. He had before said he would not pay contractors for jobs done during former governor Peter Munya’s regime.
The county assembly has approved the Sh723 million payment.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had during the 56th Madaraka Day celebrations directed that all pending bills be paid before the end of 2018-2019 financial year.
It was after that directive that the National Treasury issued an ultimatum to the devolved units to pay the pending bills. A number of counties are yet to clear the debts.
