Tuesday, 20 May, 2025
Finance and Budget Committee takes Governor Malombe to task on soaring pending bills
Kitui County Monday, 19th May 2025
The Standing Committee on Finance and Budget has put Governor (Dr.) Julius Malombe to task over the soaring pending bills that his County Executive owes to various entities.
This development comes after Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua raised the issue on the floor of the House through a request for a Statement from the Committee, asking it to provide a report on the total value of pending bills currently owed by the County Government of Kitui.
He also asked the Senator Ali Roba-led Committee to outline the mechanisms that the County Executive have put in place to verify the authenticity of these bills and prevent fraudulent or inflated invoices.
While meeting with Governor Malombe in Kitui Town earlier today, Senators were appalled to learn that the County Government of Kitui formed a committee named Kitui County Pending Bills Review Committee, 2022 (PBRC), to receive and verify all pending bills from creditors.
They poked holes in the validity of the decision and the authenticity of the review committee’s report, bearing in mind that it is appointed by the Governor, and counselled the county boss to involve the Office of the Auditor General in verifying its findings before they are tabled in the county assembly.
“Governors are free animals meant to run in a cage, which is the Constitution of Kenya. The Auditor General, an independent entity, should be involved in verifying these pending bills,” Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale suggested.
“Governors are taking the power of auditing pending bills from the Auditor General. Nobody else can authorise the findings of these pending bills committees except the Auditor General,” Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka reiterated.
The Senators argued that leaving the work of verifying the pending bills to the review committee puts the devolved units at the risk of paying some entities while leaving out those not aligned with the government of the day.
In his submission, Governor Malombe told the Committee that the review committee invited all pending bill claims and verified them to confirm their authenticity and accuracy.
He explained that while his administration has tried to pay off the pending bills, budget allocations delay, unrealized own source revenue targets, undisbursed grants and exchequer disbursements delays have posed a challenge.
“The Pending Bills Review Committee received claims totalling Kshs2,560,718,639. Out of these, Kshs1,431,226,010 worth of bills were cleared for payment, while bills valued at Kshs1,129,492,629 were recommended for further verification, valuation and validation,” Governor Malombe.
The Finance Committee also met with the Members of the County Assembly of Kitui, led by their Speaker, Hon. Kevin Katisya, and hailed them for clearing all their pending bills.