The Murang’a government has cleared Sh342 million development bills owed by the previous administration to suppliers and contractors.
Governor Irungu Kang’ata has said the county government has been clearing the bills in tranches and that recurrent bills will be cleared by the end of the year.
The current administration received claims amounting to Sh2.7 billion accrued in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years.
The county government had been advised by the Controller of Budget to only verify bills accrued in the two years as the ones accrued previously had already been verified.
The county then formed the Pending Bills Verification Committee that verified bills amounting to Sh642 million out of which Sh300 million were recurrent expenditure bills.
The county then formed the Ineligible Pending Bills Committee that dealt with appeals from contractors whose claims were not verified.
The committee verified a further Sh40 million while bills worth Sh425 million were committed back to the procurement department for further documentation and another Sh300 million were deemed ineligible.
“Those affected were advised either pursue the matter in court or seek further verification from the Office of the Controller of Budget”.
Kang’ata said his administration is in the process of organising a county attorney office to enable it to get accurate legal bills figures.
The governor spoke while giving the state of the county address at the county assembly.
Kang’ata said the county government has 5,100 employees out of whom 1,400 are employed on casual basis.
The county, he said, had an Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) and a manual payroll system that is easily manipulable and employees are unable to access services such as loans.
To remedy the situation, the governor said the county has started the process of formalising casuals employment by issuing the employees with IPPD numbers.
“This far, about 80 per cent of employees previously on the manual system have been successfully onboarded onto the IPPD payroll system”.
The county government spends about 45 per cent of its revenue on salaries against the legal provision of 35 per cent allowed by the Public Finance Management Act.
Kang’ata said the Senate and the Office of the Auditor General have raised concerns over the bloated workforce and many counties have resorted in retrenchments.
“Our endeavour is to increase own source revenue to decrease the percentage of county allocation spent on salaries,” he said, adding that the county has frozen fresh recruitments.
While highlighting the achievements of his administration, Kang’ata said his administration has established an annual reward scheme for hardworking employees
The county government has also reformed its staff disciplinary process that now adheres to the principles of natural justice including the right to be heard.