Chief of Staff Koskei wants pending bills cleared

By Peter Ochieng

Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Felix Koskei on Thursday gave a directive which if implemented, will see pending bills cleared in the coming days or weeks.

He gave the directive when he met over 30 Principal Secretaries (PSs) at the Bomas of Kenya, to discuss the effective and sustainable implementation of the 2023/2024 budget.

Koskei said PSs should speedily clear pending bills within their dockets, as the government embarks on achieving what he said was “zero-fault audits” for the Financial Year 2023/2024.

“You are therefore expected to critically review, re-evaluate and re-prioritize activities and accommodate any requirements within the available resource envelope,” said the Public Service boss.

“As accounting officers, you are responsible for ensuring prudent implementation of projects, elimination of non-strategic spending, improve on the efficiency in public spending and ensure value for money and zero tolerance for corruption,” he added.

In June, 2023, the Cabinet approved the establishment of a special committee on pending bills.

A Cabinet dispatch then said the Pending Bills Verification Committee will be tasked with the auditing of liabilities for the period between 2005 and 2022.

The national government pending bills from June 2005 to June 2022, stand at Sh481 billion, while counties are owe Sh159.9 billion, majorly to suppliers.

The committee consists the Attorney General, the State Department of Roads, the State Department of Public Works, the State Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority.

Representatives of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the Law Society of Kenya, the Institute of Engineers of Kenya and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya are also be part of the team.

The committee to examine and submit interim reports to the Treasury Cabinet Secretary upon verification.

The government will then honour the obligation in question.