MPs probe rejected Sh268 billion claims from government contractors awaiting payment
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu has previously warned Parliament that delays in settling pending bills distort government financial statements and affect future budgets.
MPs are raising concerns about the slow pace of verifying government debts, accusing the verification committee of contributing to the suffering of suppliers and contractors awaiting payment.
The National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has now summoned the team tasked with examining the Sh700 billion in pending bills to explain the delay.
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The committee, chaired by Butere MP Tindi Mwale, said it was unacceptable that individuals who had done legitimate business with the government were being subjected to years of frustration and financial distress.
MPs warned that the government's slow payment process had real human costs, citing cases where some individuals had died while waiting for their money.
“This thing called verification of pending bills, what is it really?” asked Funyula MP Wilberforce Oundo.
“I know of a person from my constituency who went to the grave because of the frustrations he encountered chasing what the government owed him.”
Mwale said it was time for the committee led by former Auditor-General Edward Ouko to appear before Parliament.
“We have to invite the pending bills verification committee to hear from them on this matter. Legitimate individuals who have done business with the government and delivered shall not continue to suffer the ignominy of being auctioned while some government agencies take their sweet time,” he said.
A report presented to the National Assembly Liaison Committee shows that of the Sh664 billion in claims submitted to the committee by March, Sh268 billion was rejected for lacking proper documentation.
The committee, chaired by Ouko, is expected to assess and analyse all national government pending bills and provide advice on how they should be resolved.
The committee's role includes establishing criteria to determine the validity of each claim.
However, MPs say the process has turned into a barrier to payment rather than a path to justice for those owed by the state.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu has previously warned Parliament that delays in settling pending bills distort government financial statements and affect future budgets.
“Pending bills could expose the project to the risk of incurring unnecessary interest and penalties in case of litigation,” she said in her audit reports.
The growing backlog of pending bills, now estimated at Sh700 billion, is in breach of the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, which requires that procurement should only proceed where there is a budget in place.
Regulation 42(1)(a) of the PFM (National Government) Regulations 2015 further states that debt payments should be the first charge on the Consolidated Fund.
Despite these requirements, some state agencies say they have been affected by delays in fund disbursement and late invoice submissions from contractors, making it difficult to pay on time.
But the Auditor-General maintains that failure to act promptly results in wasteful expenditure due to interest and penalties.
Documents tabled in Parliament reveal the scale of the problem.
The Ministry of Health topped the list of pending bills in the 2022/23 financial year with Sh40.22 billion.
The Ministry of Defence followed with Sh9.8 billion in unpaid bills, while the National Police Service owed Sh5.5 billion.
“The bills were not settled during the period under review but were instead carried forward to the 2023/24 financial year. No satisfactory explanation was provided for non-payment of pending bills during the year they were incurred,” the audit reports say.
The pending bills verification committee is expected to make recommendations to the National Treasury to guide actions needed for clearing the backlog. However, MPs argue that the process has become a bureaucratic bottleneck rather than a solution.
As pressure mounts, MPs insist that suppliers and contractors who delivered goods and services to the government must not be pushed into bankruptcy or left in distress while government agencies delay action.
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