Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza told the Senate Public Accounts Committee that she is committed to paying Sh700 million pending bills inherited from the previous administration.
Ms Mwangaza who appeared before the Committee chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang in Nairobi on Thursday said she has put in place measures to clear Sh700 million pending bills, which she termed as genuine, and noted that there are other Sh500 million pending bills she said are fictitious.
The governor told the committee that the pending bills arose as a result of delayed disbursement of funds from the National Treasury, the existence of work in progress at the closure of the financial year and failure to meet the revenue collection budget, among other factors.
"During the financial year ending June 2020 the county government of Meru paid Sh1 billion to offset the previous year's pending bills and it has continued to provide budget for the same and I promise this committee that we are going to honour financial obligations during my tenure," she said.
Mwangaza informed the committee that when constituting her government she reduced the number of Chief Officers from 21 to 7 besides ensuring that 532 casual workers are employed on contract out of the 1,300 casual workers that she found when she assumed office.
The Committee Vice Chairman Samson Cherargei said it was important that the governor clears pending bills so that they do not spill over to the next financial year saying that the delays in most counties had led to contractors and suppliers suffering for many years.
Mr Cherargei acknowledged that it was not easy to verify some of the projects done three years ago but if the pending bills were verified and certified by the Auditor General as genuine there was no reason as to why any governor will refuse to honour them.
Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka said it was a bad practice by governors to fail to clear pending bills bearing in mind that most of the contractors and suppliers are ordinary people terming it as one of the reasons that have led to some of them becoming unpopular and losing their seats.
Mwangaza said the governor's official residence has since been completed at a cost of Sh127 million and was already occupied.
She explained that at the time of the audit, the works were not complete and the contractor was not on site with the delays arising following the capping of the amount that counties could spend towards the construction of the governor and deputy governor's residence.
"The capping was done when the county had already awarded the contract for the construction of the official governor's residence, after the capping was introduced the county experienced challenges with the Controller of Budget declining to approve the release of funds for the project which ultimately led to the contractor abandoning the site," said Mwangaza.
The governor admitted that the county has not met the one-third constitutional requirement of recruitment of officers from non-dominant communities with this having been occasioned by the fact that during the recruitment few applicants from non-dominant communities tendered their application.
