- No county reported zero pending bills.
- In February this year, the CoB blamed entities for diverting funds that were meant to pay the bills.
Image: COURTESY
Nairobi County is leading in all pending bills.
Data from the Controller of Budget's latest report reveals that counties accumulated pending invoices of Sh164.76 billion as of June 30, 2023.
Nairobi leads with Sh107.33 billion followed by Kiambu with Sh5.96 billion, Wajir Sh5.5 billion, Mombasa Sh4.29 billion and Murangá at Sh3.65 billion.
In the financial year 2022/23 Annual County Budget Implementation Review Report, Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang'o attributed the increase to delays in cash transfers and reluctance by some of the new county administrations who took office in September last year.
“The high level of pending bills may be attributed to delays in disbursing the equitable share by the National Treasury and political interference and refusal by successive governments to honour obligations,” she said in the report.
Going further, some counties recorded low pending bills with Elgeyo Marakwet at Sh18.6 billion, Lamu at Sh72.3 billion, Nyamira at sh78.67 billion, Nyeri at Sh79.3 billion and Kakamega at Sh134.3 billion.
No county reported zero pending bills.
In February this year, the CoB blamed entities for diverting funds that were meant to pay the bills.
“Some of the key reasons for the huge pending bills is the diversion of payments from the rightful payees to others who are not in the list that I authorize for payments,” she said.
Nyakang'o said the above happened a lot, especially during transitions to the new administration.
"Our small research shows that the level of voided transactions in 2022 was 10 times more than the normal levels experienced years before the change to the new administration, " she said.
Nyakang'o recommended that county leadership take charge of the pending bills and ensure genuine ones are paid in the remaining period of the financial year.
"The Controller of Budget advises county governments to settle all eligible pending bills as a first charge in the FY 2022/23," she said.
Concerns had also been raised over the high number of counties that used manual payroll during the period under review.
The CoB warned that the manual payroll is prone to abuse and may lead to the loss of public funds where there is a lack of proper controls.
The Annual County Budget Implementation Review Report presents the budget performance of the 47 county governments by analysing receipts into the County Revenue Fund, exchequer issues, actual expenditure, and absorption of funds against the approved budget.