City Hall starts paying Sh3 billion in pending bills

Nairobi County Assembly speaker Benson Mutura [ PHOTO: Jonah Onyango]

City Hall has initiated the process of paying Sh3 billion in pending bills owed to contractors and suppliers.

Acting Governor Benson Mutura on Friday said the process commenced shortly after the court allowed the county government to enter into consent over implementation of the Sh37.5 billion budget.

The county government could not spend the billions from the 2020/21 budget after former Governor Mike Sonko went to court to block its implementation. Sonko also declined to sign warrants, which are meant to enable the Controller of Budget to authorise the release of funds.

County operations

After he signed the warrants last month, Mutura said the county government entered into a conditional arrangement with the courts and the National Treasury to allow for expenditure of some funds to forestall county operations from grinding into a halt.

The acting governor said the payments to contractors and suppliers would be channeled through the National Treasury and priority would be given to garbage contractors and small-scale traders.

Garbage contractors are owed approximately Sh1 billion and have been on strike for the past one year due to a delay in paying them. Small-scale traders are owed about Sh700 million.

“The process to pay contractors and suppliers as from this week has officially started and is ongoing. The funds are there and it is now just a matter of organising the records and knowing who to pay first,” Mutura said.