Treasury CS blames disregard for policy for rising pending bills – KBC

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani is warning counties, ministries, departments and other state agencies against contravening austerity measures put in place to control spending.

Yatani says disregard for the policy is to blame for rising pending bills which has surged to more than 20 billion shillings due to un-budgeted expenses.

According to the National Treasury, government ministries pending bills amount to only 1.8 billion shillings after the government paid off a huge chunk of the 14 billion shillings bills.

The Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani says the government has resolved that all pending bills held by both the national and county governments will be cleared by the end of this financial year.

Yatani blames some ministries of misappropriating funds meant to pay suppliers.

However the private sector may have to wait a little bit longer to get their tax refunds from KRA after the CS admitted that there are no funds to allocate the taxman to pay off claimants.

This comes in the wake of revelations that the government loses an average of 2.5 billion shillings yearly due to penalties levied on delayed developments funded by development partners as a result of government bureaucracies.

The government plans to table another supplementary budget to fill the budget even as it step up its effects to cut government expenditure.