Ruto to counties: Carry your own cross on Sh99b pending bills

Deputy President William Ruto has said the national government should not be blamed for failure by counties to meet their financial obligations.

Speaking yesterday at the close of the devolution conference in Kakamega, Ruto said despite delays in disbursements, the national government remits all the money owed to the counties.

“At the end of every year, we have no balances for the previous year that are due to any county. We release all the money even though there are delays by the end of the financial year. Today, we do not owe a debt to any county for previous years,” he said.

Pending bills continue to be a cause of worsening relationships between suppliers and county governments. As at the end of September last year, county government held Sh99 billion worth of pending bills.

Ruto accused county governments of living outside their means by making commitments beyond their resources, noting that failure to meet local revenue target collections made the situation worse.

“Less than half of all counties, in fact only 22, attained the average of 60 per cent or above of their four-year revenue targets. Those that fell short have felt greater heat in the form of accumulated pending bills,” Ruto said.

Tax collection

The DP attributed the delayed disbursements to tax collection hitches.

“There is need to expedite the release of funds to counties. That is a solid statement. But we are a proud government that leaves within our means. All the monies we transfer to counties is collected from Kenyan taxpayers and we do not have any budgetary support.

Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya also voiced his concerns about the pending bills, warning that the figure would continue to rise if the cash flow problem was not addressed.

“This is a problem that sometimes goes on for three months. We are then forced to seek the services of suppliers without pay,” he said.

Oparanya added: “Procurement without funds is the root cause of all these problems. It is now two months to the end of the financial year and the National Treasury has not released funds. It will be in the system on June 28. When it is not spent, it is taken back.”

He said Kakamega gets Sh800 million monthly, half of which goes towards paying salaries, but was lagging behind in development because of disbursement delays.