•During Madaraka Day celebrations on June 1, the President ordered the state ministries, departments and agencies and counties to cleat their pending bills.
•Counties have defied President Uhuru Kenyatta's directive to clear the bills
Image: GEORGE MURAGE
The Senate now wants the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to probe the Sh130 billion pending bills in counties, amid claims of inflation and fictitious amounts owed to contractors.
The lawmakers want DCI boss George Kinoti and DPP Noordin Haji to swiftly swing into action and unravel the mystery behind the ballooning bills across the 47 county governments.
“The DPP and the DCI should step in and find out who, in their right senses, procured for goods and services without budgets to pay for them,” Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula said.
The call comes hot on the heels of a special audit by Auditor General that unearthed shocking details of how some unscrupulous officers in the counties inflated the pending bills figures.
In the report released in June, the auditor revealed that at least Sh35 billion of pending bills in the counties were fake (ineligible), putting governors and their finance and procurement officers on the spot.
However, it has emerged that some county governments have not paid their contractors for years despite the audit and other internal vetting showing that the bills are genuine.
The matter caught the attention of President Uhuru Kenyatta after revelations that the bills have impoverished some contractors, some auctioned by financial institutions.
During Madaraka Day celebrations on June 1, the President ordered the state ministries, departments and agencies and counties to cleat their pending bills.
But most counties have apparently ignored Uhuru’s directive, sending most contractors and suppliers into oblivion into untold agony and suffering.
“Kenyans cannot continue suffering, taking loans from banks and shylocks. The people are suffering and we must stop this suffering,” Wetangula said on the floor while reacting to a statement sought by Wajir Senator Abdullahi Ali regarding the status of pending bills in the counties.
“The President gave a directive. He did not give an opinion or make a Statement. He gave a directive that all pending bills must be paid. What is the value of a Presidential directive?” he posed.
In the statement, Senator Ali demanded to know whether county governments process their pending bills with the laid down policy and framework.
He also wanted to know the current status of pending bills in the 47 county assemblies and county executives and whether the counties comply with the provisions of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act.
“The people who are in the counties including contractors and those who do business with the counties are already suffering. They will continue to suffer if action is not taken,” Ali said.
Finance and Budget Committee chairman Mohamed Mahamud, whose committee was tasked with investigating the matter before the DCI takes up the matter, said the pending bills is baffling because of the many contradicting figures.
Office of the Controller of Budget, Auditor General and the counties themselves have been giving out contracting figures.
“Nobody can establish what the figures are. In fact, the CoB did report that by June, 2018, the figure was Sh108 billion. The Auditor-General was asked to make a special audit and he came up with a figure of Sh130 billion,” he said.
Nominated Senator Alice Milgo said that the youths, woman and people with disability who borrow from banks to supply the counties are the suffering the most.
She faulted procurement and finance officers who have been procuring services and goods with finances, contrary to the law.
“Many youth and even women normally come to me in my county, asking me to go and assist them to be paid. However, I have realized that the issue of payment has been affected by corruption, in this case, because it is only friends of governors who are normally paid,” she said.
Senators Juma Wario (Tana River), Samson Cherargei (Nandi), Steward Madzayo (Kilifi), Ledama Olekina (Narok), Mohamed Faki (Mombasa) and Mithika Linturi (Meruri) all called for inquiry into the matter.