NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 10 – Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen says Sh165 billion in pending bills owed to road contractors is slowing development across the country.
Speaking before the Senate plenary, Murkomen indicated that the situation has been made worse by the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024.
“In the first year, we were given a budget of about sh53 billion, and only sh33 to 34 billion was disbursed to the ministry, in the last financial year that just ended the allocated budget was sh73 billion and by the end of it the ministry had only received sh25 billion,” he said
He also stated that the carrying forward of debts owed to the ministry, have led to a cumulative debt of sh165 billion that is yet to be paid to contractors since 2022.
“For the two years I have been in office, in terms of budget allocation and disbursement, the actual amount that the ministry has received to chase the road portfolio is only sh50billion and when it was paid, the contractors incurred another pending bill,” he noted. “That moved it to sh165billion, so as we sit here, we have a pending bill of sh165billion for all the road contracts in the country.”
Murkomen further said the roads will only be completed if the government makes a one-off payment of the owed debts.
“From a ministry perspective, unless the treasury and parliament through budget makes a drastic decision of a one-off payment of the contractors, we will be lying to Kenyans that we will be able to complete these roads in time,” he said.
Murkomen indicated that the situation has been made worse by the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024.
“That means we stagnate around here, because government to be able to plug in the sh349billion that is a gap and to look for other resources to do this becomes a big challenge,” he highlighted.
