This archive report was first published on 4 December 2019.
As of November 30, 2019, some of the 15 counties who had been cited for non-compliance had obeyed the directive to settle their pending bills.
According to Deputy Controller of Budget Stephen Masha, only Baringo County had settled all the Ksh.31.6 million owed to suppliers.
However, Baringo County has since fully settled Ksh.24.0 million in pending bills, followed by Garissa which had lowered its pending bills from Ksh.1.4 billion to Ksh.953.1 million and Bomet from Ksh.792.3 million to Ksh.397.9 million.
On November 19, 2019, acting National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani threatened to invoke section 97 of the Public Finance Management Act, to stop further transfer of the equitable share of revenue for the 2019/2020 financial year to 15 county governments with effect from December 1, 2019.
Speaking during a session with the Senate Finance Committee, Masha revealed that the counties with the highest pending bills were Nairobi with Ksh.8.2 billion, Mombasa with Ksh.2.03 billion, and Kiambu with Ksh.1.03 billion.
Meanwhile, counties have continued to express concern over the looming delay in approving expenditure following a vacancy in the office of the controller of budget after Agnes Odhiambo’s exit.
The National Assembly Finance Committee on Tuesday afternoon tabled its report recommending the approval of Margaret Nyakang’o for the position.
