Nairobi county lacks payment plan for Sh107b pending bills

Nairobi Governor Sakaja Johnson. [David Gichuru, Standard]

Nairobi county has not provided a clear plan on how to settle Sh107 billion pending bills.

This is according to a report by the Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakang'o for the first quarter of the 2023/2024 Financial year.

"The CoB identified a high level of pending bills, which amounted to Sh107.33 billion as of June 30, 2023, coupled with lack of a payment plan as one of the challenges affecting budget implementation," reads the CoB report in part.

"The CoB wrote to the State Department of Devolution to clarify the travel clearance submitted by the county government to support their requests," reads the report.

Notably, in 2022 when Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja took over, the pending bills stood at Sh100.36 billion.

From the latest report, it means that Sakaja's regime has stretched the pending bills by about Sh7 billion slightly over one year in office.

In January last year, the county formed a 14-member committee to review the Sh21 billion pending bills for a period of six months.

The committee was tasked to scrutinise and analyse the county government's pending bills and submit a report with recommendations for settlement of the same.

The team was also expected to assess reports of previous investigations relevant to its mandate; carry out or cause to be carried out such studies.

However, the team suffered a blow in September last year after the High Court declared committees created by governors to audit pending bills illegal.

The court noted that according to the law, external audits of government bodies or public entities ought to be done by the Auditor General.

Apart from Nairobi, Trans-Nzoia and Siaya counties had appointed similar committees to audit pending bills.