Nyeri county reports zero pending bills, tables Sh7.7 billion budget

Nyeri County has reported zero pending debts as it prepares for the 2022/ 2023 financial year, a report has shown.

The Nyeri County 2022/2023-2024/2025 Medium Term Debt Management Strategy indicated the county did not accrue pending bills during the financial year ending June 30, 2021.

“This may be attributed to prudent management of available resources as well as expenditure control on essential areas,” the report showed.

The document was prepared by the County Finance Department and is awaiting approval by the Assembly.

This comes amid concern by the Controller of Budget over growing debt in counties, in a report showing that 30 counties did not spend any money to settle pending bills in the first three months of the 2021/2022 financial year.

Baringo, Bungoma, Busia, Elgeyo Marakwet, Homa Bay, Kilifi, Kisumu, Kwale, Machakos, Marsabit, Meru, Migori, Nairobi and Nakuru are among counties flagged in the report.

However, while Nyeri County does not have any pending bills, it is grappling with inherited debt from the defunct county council totalling Sh592 million.

“The debts are in form of unpaid leave days, staff uniform allowances and overtime claims amounting to Sh129 million,” said County Executive Committee (CEC) member for Finance, Robert Thuo.

Thuo said the County had established a task force to verify claims from the defunct local authority staff in an endeavour to ease the debt burden.

Nyeri Executive has also tabled its Annual Development Plan and the County Fiscal Strategy Paper (CFSP) for the 2022/2023 financial year, proposing a total county budget of Sh 7.7 billion.