New governors grapple with the huge bills they inherited
Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro (left) and Kaloleni MP Paul Katana during a past event. Mr Mung’aro has been asked to clear pending bills to unlock contractors’ and suppliers’ capital.
New governors in the Coast region are facing a huge burden of clearing more than Sh11.23 billion in pending bills they inherited from their predecessors.
The debts that have piled up over the years have become a nightmare for the new administrations that are keen on funding more development projects.
In Kilifi, leaders have asked Governor Gideon Mung’aro to pay debts owed to suppliers and contractors who have now stopped working with the county owing to delayed payments.
According to a Controller of Budget (CoB) report, Kilifi’s outstanding bills as of June 30 amounted to Sh1.99 billion comprising Sh1.19 billion under recurrent expenditure and Sh795.37 million under development expenditure. At the beginning of the 2021/22 financial year, the county prepared a payment plan to settle Sh973.84 million of the pending bills.
The uphill task
Mr Mung’aro formed a task force last month after his swearing in to look into the pending bills and gave it 21 days to present its report.
Taita-Taveta Governor Andrew Mwadime also faces the uphill task of clearing bills inherited from his predecessor, Mr Granton Samboja. The CoB report states that in fiscal 2021/22 alone, the county accrued pending bills worth Sh403 million.
According to the Auditor-General, eligible pending bills for Taita-Taveta as of June 30, 2020, were Sh713.20 million, of which the county government paid Sh52.24 million, leaving a balance of Sh630.64 million.
“The outstanding pending bills as of June 30, 2022, of Sh1.033 billion include the bills classified as eligible by the Office of the Auditor General,” the report states.
Ms Isabella Kidede, a budget activist in the county, said non-payment for services by the county government had tied down contractors’ and suppliers’ capital.
Ms Kidede said Mr Mwadime’s administration should tell the public what it is doing to offset the debt. She added that the debt and the huge wage bill have affected implementation of development projects in the county.
The Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015 limits a devolved unit’s expenditure on wages and benefits at 35 per cent of the county’s total revenue.
The staff audit
However, the CoB report indicates that the county executive and the assembly spent about Sh2.8 billion on salaries for the 2021/22 financial year, which represents 52.2 per cent of the annual revenue of Sh5.39 billion.
Ms Kidede said the county government should reveal the outcome of the staff audit that was initiated when the new administration took office.
She said they were “doing badly as regards the wage bill. We’re way above the recommended percentage.”
Ghost workers
In Mombasa, Governor Abdulswamad Nassir has promised to prioritise payment of pending bills amounting to Sh4.2 billion after an audit is completed.
He will start with “those that have not been paid in the past eight or nine years,” he said.
The Council of Governors (CoG) has flagged pending bills and ghost workers as key challenges most counties face even as its chairperson Anne Waiguru said pending bills were derailing progress in most counties.
The governors said this had pushed up the wage bill, and delays by the National Treasury in disbursing cash had made matters worse.
They promised to deal with urgent needs like workers’ salaries before clearing pending bills.
