William Ruto’s government is staring at the Sh657 billion pending bills it inherited from the previous government. Auditor General Nancy Gathungu yesterday said unpaid bills have become a matter of concern, saying both the national and county governments had failed to pay debts.

Addressing a forum in Nairobi on the implementation of audit reports, she said the national government’s pending bills had shot to Sh504 billion in the last financial year. During the same period, counties incurred Sh153 billion debt.

State corporations have incurred the biggest debt, piling bills close to Sh450 billion. The other bills have been accumulated by ministries, departments and agencies. 

“Pending bills has become a national issue as both the national and county governments owe suppliers. As at June 30, 2021, the national government presented information that it owed Sh359b to suppliers (MDAs Sh36.4b, state corporations Sh323.2b). This amount is expected to increase to Sh504.7Bn (MDAs Sh56.1b, state corporations Sh448.6b) for the financial year 2021/2022,” she said. 

For the counties, the executive has a bill totalling Sh152 billion while the assemblies have a Sh1 billion unpaid money.