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Kisumu County Assembly has adopted a report on the supplementary budget estimates, giving the Executive the green-light to pay pending bills amounting to Sh1.4 billion.

Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) on Wednesday approved the 2019/20 supplementary budget estimates report that stipulated an additional Sh500 million be spent to clear pending bills accrued between 2013 and 2014.

Another Sh970 million from the recurrent expenditure will also be used to settle current pending bills.

June deadline

The Assembly Budget and Appropriations committee chair Steve Owiti, while presenting the report, said the supplementary budget was necessitated by, among other factors, a directive from the National Treasury to settle all the eligible pending bills accrued up to June 2018 by June.

Owiti told the Assembly that his committee had recommended that a list of pending bills be provided for verification by members to ensure prudent utilisation of funds.

According to the committee’s report, Sh174 million had been disbursed to offset part of the county pending bills.

Ghost projects

The MCAs on Tuesday demanded that the Assembly be furnished with a comprehensive list of all pending bills to be settled before any payment can be done.

While debating a statement tabled by North Nyakach MCA Rashid Miruka, the ward reps raised fears that the county was likely to pay for ghost projects if the full list was not presented for proper scrutiny.

They said pending bills had become a thorny issue in the county, stressing that the matter must be dealt with finality.

In his statement, Miruka asked the Executive to serve the House with the list of pending bills, names of projects undertaken, companies that undertook them, amount paid so far and remaining balance and  measures put in place to curb future pending bills.

“The way we are going we may end up paying for ghost projects. Let the comprehensive list of pending bills be brought to us for verification so that the residents who are taxpayers can get the benefits of their money,” said Miruka.

Central Nyakach MCA Phillemon Ojuok and his Kabonyo Kanyagwal counterpart Oiko Pete said submission of the list of pending bills would enable them to address questions raised on the quality of some ward projects.

Manyatta B MCA Pamela Odhiambo said some contractors had done shoddy work but were demanding  payment.

 Speaker Elisha Oraro directed the Finance committee to  submit a report in two weeks failure to which the Assembly will constitute an ad hoc committee to look into the matter.