The Star has established that the devolved units are not clearing the pending bills that have ballooned to over Sh150 billion.
“What I have realised is that most counties are not requisitioning for payment of pending bills,” Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang'o said.
Nyakang'o revealed that the counties are mostly seeking withdrawals for recurrent expenses – mainly salaries and operations and maintenance.
This is despite most of them having huge balances at their Revenue Fund Accounts held at the Central Bank.
Last week, President William Ruto said the counties had in excess of Sh50 billion lying idle in their accounts.
"As I talk to you, there is Sh50 billion lying at the Central Bank. My request to you is please spend this money," he said.
“In fact, there is no pending salary issues in any of the counties. They are all up-to-date with the payment of salaries but we have a big problem with pending bills,” Nyakang'o said.
Pending bills have been a big concern in both the county and national government entities.
As at March 31, the 47 county governments had accumulated Sh159.73 billion in pending bills.
“On pending bills, the Controller of Budget advises county governments to settle the eligible pending bills as a first charge on the budget in line with the law,” Nyakang'o stated in her expenditure report for the first nine months for last financial year.
With the nonpayment, the bills are expected to have grown since then.
Several suppliers and contractors – some small businesspeople – have protested nonpayment, with some saying their properties have been auctioned due to delayed payments.
Tough calls by the President and the Treasury to the entities to clear the bills have failed to bear any fruit as the bills have continued to grow.
In the past, the Treasury threatened to withhold funds to counties with huge pending bills. But this did not happen.
Nyakang'o said the counties are not paying the debt as most of them, especially those headed by first term governors, are still auditing the bills.
“Some counties have huge balances but the funds are mostly conditional grants which come with conditions, and counties cannot use them to pay pending bills,” the country’s budget boss said.
According to the CoB’s report for the nine months, Governor Johnson Sakaja’s Nairobi City County reported the highest level of pending bills at Sh102.81 billion.
Other counties with high levels of pending bills are Wajir at Sh5.38 billion, Kiambu at Sh5.33 billion, and Mombasa at Sh4.91 billion.
Others are Nandi (Sh1.28 billion), Mandera (Sh2.12 billion), Kisumu (Sh1.44 billion), Kilifi (Sh2.18 billion), Kajiado (Sh2.06 billion), Busia (Sh1.49 billion) and Nyandarua (Sh1.08 billion).
Prolonged verification of pending bill, untimely approval of supplementary budget estimates to adopt prior-year pending bills in the current budget, leading to payment delays, political interference and refusal by successive governments to honour obligations have been blamed for the ballooning debt.
Only Elgeyo Marakwet county reported clearing all the outstanding pending bills.
Counties with least pending bills are Lamu (Sh29.70 million), Nyamira (Sh90.28 million), Nyeri (Sh138.72 million), Kakamega (Sh134.31 million) and Kirinyaga (Sh319.40 million) and Kwale (Sh176.06 million).
“Isiolo, Kajiado, Laikipia, Mandera, Nairobi City and Nakuru counties did not provide disaggregated data on pending bills,” the report states.
