House orders Rotich to table list of pending bills

Parliament has directed the Treasury secretary Henry Rotich to prepare and table a schedule of all pending bills owed to contractors by end of this month.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has also ordered Mr Rotich to present a status report on the work of the task force on Pending Bills Closing Committee.

PAC wants the Treasury to provide a schedule of pending bills together with comparative figures in relation to previous financial years 2011/12 and 2012/13.

The committee found out that the government had a pending bill of Sh16.6 billion in the year to June 2014.

“The Cabinet Secretary (CS), national Treasury should prepare a status report on the work of the task force on Pending Bills…and submit the report to the National Assembly by June30, 2016, failure of which he would be held accountable,” PAC said in its report on the accounts for the financial year 2013/14.

Distorts statements

The report reveals that a number of ministries, departments and agencies of government did not settle bills amounting to Sh16.6 billion comprising Sh9.7 billion and Sh2.3 billion under recurrent and development votes respectively in the year ended June 30, 2014.

A further Sh4.2 billion was not classified, but was instead carried forward to 2014/2015 financial year.

According to the report that was tabled in the National Assembly on Wednesday by PAC chairman Nicholas Gumbo, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology topped the list with bills amounting to Sh7.9 billion.

The ministry of Agriculture followed with Sh2.7 billion while Health holds Sh2.2 billion bills for year under review.

Mr Gumbo’s team said failure to settle bills in the year they fall distorts the financial statements for that year and adversely affects provisions for the subsequent year to which they are charged.

“The committee observed that failure to settle bills in time has serious implications for suppliers and the economy in general,” the MPs said.