The Budget and Appropriations Committee has expressed serious concerns over the failure by National Treasury to address the matter of Pending Bills in its Financial Year 2020/2021 Supplementary 2 budget estimates submitted before the National Assembly.
The Committee, chaired by Kieni MP Hon Kanini Kega today took the Treasury Principal Secretary Dr. Julius Muia to task to explain why despite seeking additional finances before the end of the financial Year 2020/2021, they have failed to accommodate the need to settle the many pending government bills.
“We need a firm commitment from the Ministry of Finance that these pending bills will be settled as soon as possible. It is disappointing that the priority does not seem to be on payment of monies owed to suppliers, but on new projects that are obviously not an emergency” posed Kega.
The Principal Secretary, in response to the issues raised by the legislators, referenced the fact that all ministries and SAGAs had been directed by the treasury to aim to clear all pending bills before the end of the current financial year.
The Committee has directed that the Ministry of finance, in collaboration with all other ministries and other concerned parties, to develop a comprehensive database detailing all the pending bills, highlighting what has been done to settle them and what is yet to be done, with an intention to settle them by latest October 1st 2021 as advised by the Kanini Kega-led committee, and in accordance with the President’s directive that suppliers’ payments should not be delayed any further.
In its examination of the submissions by Treasury, the committee also noted that some of the projects for which the Ministry of finance is seeking additional funds are not sufficiently accounted for, with a major concern rising from the Kshs 450 Million sought for emergency Interventions under the State Department for Regional and Northern Corridor development.
In its submissions of amendments to the FY 2020/2021 supplementary estimates No. 2, the National Treasury notes a reduction of over Kshs. 894Million, arising from reallocations and reductions of monies allocated to certain departments due to low absorption.
The Treasury, in a statement by the Cabinet Secretary Hon Ukur Yatani, argues that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have slowed down the economic perfomance, and underperformance of projected revenues.
They also told the committee that an increased demand for additional priority expenditures poses a challenge to the implementation of ongoing projects, citing the Kshs 45 Billion shortfall of Revenue collected versus the targeted 1,465 Billion.
The FY 2020/21 Supplementary Estimates No 2 has been prepared pursuant to the Public Finance Management Act 2012, and seeks to address Covid-19 related expenditures, regularize approved additional expenditure, and approved re-allocations.
