Pending bills payment gets Sh1.37bn in revised City Hall budget

City Hall has set aside Sh1.37 billion for payment of pending bills and another Sh651 million as car grants and mortgages for MCAs.

This will be a source of major relief for traders and contractors owed by the county and the MCAs.

As part of an ambitious Sh39.6 billion budget for the financial year ending June 30, Sh827 million has been allocated for settling pending development expenditures.

In the first supplementary budget for the current financial year approved by the county assembly last week, another Sh236 million was set aside for paying other creditors owed by City Hall for both goods and services supplied, Sh216 million for payment of outstanding insurance premiums for county assets and Sh100 million for settlement of pending legal fees.

Though a drop in the ocean as the Johnson Sakaja-led administration grapples with pending bills of more than Sh100 billion, Budget and Appropriations committee chairperson Wilfred Odalo said the allocation will go a long way in starting the process of settling eligible pending bills.

“The county government has prioritised the payment of pending bills as well as funding various programmes in a bid to ensure seamless delivery of services to residents,” said Mr Odalo.

Mr Odalo said the Sh651 million car grants and mortgage for MCAs had been moved from the development to the recurrent vote head in line with advice from the Controller of Budget. Each county lawmaker will receive about Sh5 million to be repaid in about 48 months.

Other realignments include an additional Sh125 million allocation to the transport sector towards the purchase of electric buses aimed at ensuring a pollution-free public transport ecosystem in the capital.

There is an additional allocation of Sh100 million for building stadia to promote sports and Sh40.5 million more to boost affordable housing in the city.

Some Sh200 million has been allocated to the Emergency Fund to deal with disasters while Sh35.4 million will go to intergovernmental relations within Mr Sakaja’s office.

Additionally, Sh679 million left behind by the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services will be transferred to development initiatives within the county.

The Budget and Appropriations committee pushed for the medical insurance vote to be cut by Sh436 million.

Blatant exaggeration

“Members may recall that in the submitted annual budget, the allocation for medical insurance had been proposed at Sh1.6 billion. The committee calls out this blatant exaggeration of budget figures that is not backed by data as an exercise that must be discouraged,” said Mr Odalo.

In the revised budget, recurrent expenditure will take the lion’s share at Sh27.6 billion while Sh11.9 billion will go towards development programmes.

To finance the budget, the county government has set a target of collecting Sh18.28 billion from its own source revenue, a target CoB termed as unrealistic, a position also backed by the committee.

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