Wednesday, 19 March, 2025
Governor Waiguru says Kirinyaga County will not pay unverified pending bills๐๐จ๐ง๐๐๐ฒ, ๐๐๐ซ๐๐ก ๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ,
๐๐๐ข๐ซ๐จ๐๐ข.
Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has insisted before the County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) that she will not pay unverified pending bills of the county even as she disputed the findings in the report of the Office of the Auditor General on the matter.
The Governor, who had appeared before the Committee to respond to audit queries arising from the financial statements for the County for the 2023/24 financial year, disowned the value of the pending bills as captured by the Office of the Auditor General, noting that most of the claims lacked supportive documents.
โWe are disputing the official Auditor General on the verification of pending bills in Kirinyaga County,โ Governor Waiguru told the Committee on Monday, insisting that although the figures are attributed to the Auditor General, Kirinyaga County Government cannot own them.
According to the verification report, the County value of total pending bills stands at Sh1.2 billion, some running back to the days before Ms Waiguru was elected Governor. While the Governor has taken ownership of bills amounting to Sh513 million, which her administration is paying, she however disowned bills totaling Sh680 million saying they were fictitious and thus, ineligible for payment.
Senator Moses Kajwangโ, who chairs the Committee, had flagged out the issue, arguing that Sh680 million has been pending for more than five years, warning that this is tantamount to subjecting small business people to suffering.
โYou seem to be up to date with pending bills that have accrued during your time but the old ones,โ Senator Kajwang told the Governor
He challenged the Governor to state when she will clear the bills.
But the Governor maintained her tough stance, saying the issue has been outstanding for as long as 8 years and she was not about to badge.
โThe straight answer to the question is that we cannot pay because we can verify the documents and the nature of service that was provided,โ she said, adding that she has raised the matter with the Intergovernmental Budget Economic Council, which is chaired by the Deputy President. She claimed that in the process of verification, the Office of the Auditor General had inflated the figure, making it hard for the county to pay.
Doubting the authenticity of the bills, she claimed that internal verification had shown that more than 200 invoices were raised in the four months period leading up to the 2017 general election but no service was rendered.
โMost of the companies that raised the invoices were owned by one person,โ she said.
Senator Fatuma Dullo, Senator Enoch Wambua and Senator Edwin Sifuna advised the Governor to engage the Auditor General with a view to get a solution on a matter that has festered for the last 8 years.
โYou cannot run away because the list of the pending bills is captured as part of the financial statement of the County Governmemnt of Kirinyaga. Your officers appended their signatures which are binding to you,โ said Senator Kajwang.
Senator Sifuna advised the Governor to seek a resolution of his Executive Committee declaring the inadmissibility of some of the bills, to justify her position and forestall any legal proceedings.