- Senate Finance committee warns if implemented directive will plunge counties into financial crisis
- Star has established committee will be pushing the Cabinet Secretary to rescind decision
Image: JACK OWUOR
Senators have invited acting Treasury CS Ukur Yattani to explain an order to withhold cash from counties defying his directive to pay out pending bills.
Yattani will on Tuesday appear before the Senate’s Finance committee over the directive which the Senate team believes would cripple operations in the counties if implemented.
National Treasury warned counties that they risked missing out on cash disbursement if they didn’t pay pending bills owed to both suppliers and contractors by December 1.
The CS singled out 15 counties which he noted must clear all the bills owed to suppliers and contractors or forget about funds from the national government.
The affected counties are Narok, Machakos, Nairobi, Vihiga, Isiolo, Tana River, Migori, Tharaka-Nithi, Bomet, Kirinyaga, Nandi, Mombasa, Kiambu, Garissa and Baringo.
According to CS's directive, the counties have up to December 1 to clear the bills.
“The National Treasury released Sh65 billion to county governments by June 30, 2019, which was the final disbursement on the understanding that this will be utilised to pay off pending bills,” Yatani said during a briefing at the Treasury.
“However, 15 county governments have not made any efforts to clear their pending bills in the 2019-2020 financial year. Their reported eligible pending bills have remained static between July 1 and October 31, 2019 and are sadly holding a huge proportion of the pending bills.”
It is this directive that has irked members of the Senate Finance committee who now warn that if implemented it will plunge the counties into a worse financial crisis.
The Star has established that the committee is concerned with the order to deny counties funds and will be pushing the Cabinet Secretary to rescind it.
“As a committee, we think withholding cash will halt service delivery in counties and we don’t want our people to suffer at this time,” a member of the committee told the Star.
According to Treasury, only 12 counties had complied with the directive to settle the pending bills while 20 counties were yet to fully comply.
The government wants counties to prioritise payment of eligible pending bills estimated at Sh40.5 billion.
The directive was first issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta in Narok during the Madaraka Day celebrations.