Treasury gives Sh151 billion to all county governments, urges them to pay their suppliers

All of the 47 County governments have had their share of Sh151 billion from the Treasury.

In a previous statement by the Treasury CS Ukur Yatani, another Sh8.09 billion had also been issued as conditional grants during the current fiscal year.

Until June 30, 2018, out of the Sh88.98 billion debts for the pending bills, only Sh51.8 billion were genuine, according to Auditor-General.

This only translated to 58%, indicating that 42% of the pending bills' claims lacked authenticity, hence not payable.

Initially, Ukur Yatani had directed that counties having pending bills would not get their share from the National government before the decision was challenged in court.

Some counties have already pledged to honor their payments by March 30, 2020, while the fate suppliers of other counties remain unknown as their billions amount to billions.

Garissa, Nairobi, Siaya, Kirinyaga, Mandera, Migori, Bomet, Samburu, Wajir, Isiolo, Vihiga, Turkana, Bomet and West Pokot will have its suppliers taking time before their billion bills are cleared.

"The 14 counties were required to revise their initial payment plans after the release of the November/ December 2019 disbursement. They also undertook to review their budgets through a supplementary to provide for the amount," noted Mr. Yatani.

Yatani also confirmed that the government was keeping an eye to ensure that suppliers stood not to lose anything in their past unpaid supplies.

"I wish to assure that the various private companies and other entities that government will safeguard their interest by enforcing timely payment of bills as a matter of absolute necessity," Mr. Yatani continued.

He also noted that out of the Sh15 billion pending bills for the National government, Sh12.5 billion had already been cleared, with only Sh2.5 billion remaining.