Counties have two days to pay Sh75 billion in pending bills from the last financial year.
This comes after the national Treasury on Tuesday allowed counties to clear the pending bills from the 2018-19 financial year by Friday.
“The Council of Governors requests County Executive Committee Members (CECMs) Finance of the 47 counties to ensure that they have cleared their pending bills before the deadline set to allow County Governments begin the new financial year on a clean slate,” CoG Chairman Wycliffe Oparanya said in a statement.
“Following the disbursement of funds to Counties by the National Government, I have agreed with National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Hon. Henry Rotich to allow Counties to transact until Friday 12th July 2019 to pay ALL pending bills,” Oparanya said.
The amount follows the audited accounts of the counties by the Auditor General on the list of pending bills for the period ended June 2018 in February this year.
The auditor general established that Sh35 billion of pending bills in counties are illegal while the rest were given a clean bill.
Auditor General Edward Ouko revealed that at least three governors had already irregularly paid Sh500 million for the ineligible bills, which may attract the attention of anti-corruption agencies.
The 47 counties had by end of last financial year in June 2018 accumulated Sh108.41 billion claims from contractors and suppliers, from Sh35.84 billion the year before, according to the office of Controller of Budget data.
Out of the Sh79.6 billion counties pending bills submitted by 41 counties for verification, Auditor General Edward Ouko reveals that only Sh43.9 billion is legible for settlement.
