The National Treasury and Planning Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u has invited accounting officers to make submissions on pending bills to the Pending Bills Verification Committee appointed on September 30th.
The purpose of this directive is to allow the committee to carry out a thorough analysis on the bills for the period of June 2005, to June 2022.
“In accordance with the Gazette Notice and in order to come up with well-reasoned conclusions and recommendations regarding these bills, the Committee is required to scrutinize and analyze the existing stock of National Government pending bills,” the statement by the National Treasury reads in part.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing, accounting officers are required to submit specific information for their respective Ministry/ state department/agency/state corporations/public universities/semi-autonomous government agencies or institutions.
Further, the ministries and agencies have been directed to submit detailed reports and documents by February 2, 2024.
This information includes all existing pending bills for both Recurrent and Development votes, and all procurement, contracting, implementation and contract certification documents.
Information Required for Submission by the National Treasury
Additionally, the accounting officers are required to list the reasons as to why the bills have remained unpaid to date and any other necessary information which may assist the Committee in analyzing the bills.
Additionally, the officers are required to submit a summary of their pending bills using prescribed formats as provided in forms A, B1, B2, B3 and C availed by the Treasury.
The treasury CS also directed that this information is submitted to the undersigned in both soft and hard copies by the accounting officers of the respective entities.
“Their Accounting Officers would be required to make their submissions on the dates scheduled against their Ministry/State Department/Agencies. Moreover, forms A, B and C can be downloaded from the National Treasury website,” the statement further clarified.
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Of note, the officers to be affected by this notice include accounting officers of Parliament, accounting officers of the judiciary and accounting officers of the national government ministries and state departments.
Likewise, this notice affects, accounting officers of constitutional commissions and independent government agencies, and accounting officers of state corporations, semi-autonomous government agencies, public funds and other national government agencies.
Responsibilities of the Pending Bills Commitee
The Pending Bills committee was approved by the cabinet on June 27, 2023.
As such, the mandate of the committee in accordance with the gazette notice is to scrutinize and analyze the existing National Government pending bills that have accumulated between June 2005 and June 2022.
After that, they are tasked with making recommendations to the Government on settlement of these bills.
The committee is required to establish a clearly defined criteria for detailed examination of and analysis of such pending bills or claims with a view to determining the genuineness of each or otherwise.
Similarly, the Pending bills committee is also required to make recommendations to the National Treasury on the necessary actions to be taken for satisfactory disposal or settlement of identified pending bills or claims.
They are further tasked with identifying any cases where there may have been corrupt, fraudulent and false claims against the Government and make appropriate recommendations to the relevant Government agencies.
Brief History of Pending Bills in Kenya
Notably, earlier this year the government shelved a plan to convert pending bills into a bond.
This was following concerns that it would significantly increase the pile of debt at a time the country’s position had been classified as being at high risk of debt distress.
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Further, the securitization of pending bills would imply the government floats a bond to offset the backlog of arrears, a proposal that was touted by Kenya Kwanza in the run-up to the August 2022 general election.
Additionally, President William Ruto promised that genuine public sector pending bills will be the first items to be charged in the Government budget.
On this, the president said it is time the government sorted out the sticky issue in a just and fair manner.
“We must restore confidence in the people who do business with the Government by paying them in time,” he noted then.
By the end of June 2023, the total pending bills hit Sh567.5 billion. This was a 29.2 percent growth in pending bills value, despite the Kenya Kwanza government vowing to cut the supplier debt.
