Samburu Governor Moses Lenolkulal has blamed the piling county bills on the delay of funds disbursement by the national Treasury.
Appearing before the Senate’s County Public Accounts and Investment committee yesterday, Lenolkulal appealled to the Senate to intervene.
He faulted the monthly disbursement and instead rooted for reintroduction of the quarterly system. Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo, in her 2016-17 report, totalled non-paid bills in the counties at Sh99 billion.
Samburu had pending bills worth Sh750 million by the end of the last financial year. “There is a correlation between the pending bills and outstanding disbursement from the Treasury,” he said.
Lenolkulal said business enterprises, especially those owned by youth, women and people with disability, suffer more as they receive funding in piecemeal which is hardly enough to pay salaries.
“The pending bill is hurting. It
is not our wish to have these enterprises suffer,” he added. Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo said the continued piling of bills in counties has come with additional expenditure as a result of the litigation by the suppliers and contractors.
“We need to iron out these issues so that next year we do not experience the same problems,” Dullo said.
The governor was summoned to answer audit queries flagged by Auditor General Edward Ouko in his 2014-15 report.
Lenolkulal was hard pressed on varying figures on the cash book, bank balance and certificate during the audit period.
As a result of the varying figures, Ouko indicated up to Sh387 million could not be explained.
Ouko also raised queries on the Sh2.2 million paid to county officers for travels though no document was provided to show they actually travelled.
“In the absence of the evidence for traveling and payments schedules signed by the recipients of the cash, the propriety of the expenditure could not be confirmed. There is a possibility that the funds were not utilised for official travel,” Ouko said in his report.