Contractors and suppliers from Garissa who are yet to be paid for their services have been urged to remain patient as the executive works to clear pending bills.
On Sunday, agitated contractors and suppliers from Holugho, Ijara, Fafi, Balambala, Lagdera, Dadaab, and Garissa town said they were owed Sh1.9 billion for projects initiated and done between 2013 and 2018.
The contractors who addressed a press conference at a hotel in Garissa town lamented the delay in clearing their pending bills despite several pleas.
They said nothing has been done despite President Uhuru Kenyatta's directive for counties and state department to clear pending bills.
Led by Ajib Yussuf, the contractors said they have written several letters to the executive and the auditor general asking for their intervention.
“Today, we are gathered here as legitimate contractors to express our dissatisfaction, disappointments and deep-rooted frustrations for nonpayment by the county government,” Hamza Mohamed said.
Speaking to the Star on phone, finance executive Roble Nuno said the contractors were not sincere because the county had already started paying their suppliers.
“I want to set the records straight that as an administration we started paying people who rendered services to the county in December last year. This we are doing in bits immediately and whenever the funds are made available to us,” Nuno said.
Nuno said that the number of contractors was big and that the county was doing everything to clear them in a systematic manner.
“We have contractors and suppliers who offered services to the county in 2013 others in 2014. It is only fair that we start by clearing these ones before we embark on the next group that worked between 2015 and 2018,” Nuno said.
Edited by P.O
