Nandi county has paid Sh942 million pending bills that have been outstanding for more than three years, Governor Stephen Sang has said.
He said the county had a total of Sh1.44 billion arrears and has complied with the Treasury's requirement to clear all approved major pending bills.
Sang said they cleared all the bills that met the conditions for payment during the 2019-20 financial year.
“We have paid all the eligible bills and what remains are a few ineligible bills that must be cleared and approved by the Auditor General. We plan to pay that in the next financial year once they are approved for payments,” Sang said.
The ineligible bills, set to be paid in the next financial year, amount to Sh505 million.
Sang told the Star the pending bills had not in any way affected county operations. He said all operations were running normally and within limitations of the current Covid-19 situation.
He said frequent salary delays in the county had been caused by delays in the release of funds from the Treasury.
“Such delays have been affecting all other counties and this is not unique with Nandi. We, however, have always cleared the salaries as soon as the money is released from Treasury,” Sang said. Employees have previously complained over delayed salary payments.
In the war against Covid-19, Sang said the county had reported its first confirmed positive case of a truck driver, who is isolated at Nandi Hills.
“We have trained our staff to enforce the Covid-19 control measures, and we urge residents to fully adhere to government guidelines on social distancing, hand washing and use of masks so that we stop spread of the virus,” Sang said.
The county has been using social media and other channels to ensure residents are adequately sensitised on Covid-19. The county scaled down most of its operations and allowed employees to work from home as required by the government to help control the spread of the virus.
“We have a very well functioning and robust ICT department ensuring we offer most services online and respond to public needs by phone and other means away from physical contact," Sang said.
The county has an active call centre at its Kapsabet headquarters where many operations are carried out.
Recently, its Public Service Board became the first among 47 counties to conduct phone interviews to hire health workers.
The Ministry of Health advised Public Service Boards to conduct phone interviews whenever possible to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
PSB member Irene Choge said phone interviews saved time, cost of transport and eliminated inconvenience.
