Ministries and counties should pay for services rendered now

For the second time this year, President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed ministries and county governments to settle their pending bills.

The president’s directive that the bills be paid within 10 days, comes a day after acting National Treasury CS Ukur Yatani gave 15 counties up to December 1 to settle the debts or risk losing out on cash transfers from the national government.

In total, the national government owes contractors and suppliers Sh94 billion. County governments, on the other hand, are indebted to the tune of Sh225 billion.

It is incomprehensible that counties and ministries have been clinging onto such huge sums of money belonging to businesspeople for long periods of time, even after Uhuru ordered them to pay up on Madaraka Day.

The damage caused by the non-payment of the bills to businesses and the economy at large is humongous. Some companies have run aground while others are hanging by a thread after government failed to meet its part of the bargain.

Needless to say, this impropriety on part of government has rendered many Kenyans jobless. In a nutshell, government has deprived the economy of the oxygen necessary for growth. Any wonder our economy is struggling?

By failing to pay for services delivered, the government has set a very bad example. In the eyes of the public, it has come out as dishonest. The leadership of a country like Kenya where integrity has gone to the dogs should be at the forefront doing what is right and just. That includes paying contractors—and doing so in a timely fashion. Doing otherwise is telling Kenyans that it is okay to get services but fail to pay for them.

It is wrong for government to expect Kenyans to pay taxes while the same government is downright reluctant or pays grudgingly those who render it services.

In fact, it is absurd for governors to paralyse companies by failing to pay or delaying their payments. This is because the county bosses cry blue murder every time Treasury delays disbursements, accusing the national government of paralysing their operations and plotting to kill devolution. If they don’t want counties’ paralysed, why paralyse private firms?

This time around, we expect counties and ministries to heed the president’s order and pay genuine contractors and suppliers—for there are fake ones who seek to reap where they never sowed—immediately. In future, they should refrain from soliciting services they have no plans to pay for. That’s being dishonest.