Suppliers and contractors who did business with the National Youth Service (NYS) between 2013 and 2018 have petitioned Parliament to help them get their payment.
The traders said despite President Uhuru Kenyatta’s declaration that all pending bills should be settled, the NYS was yet to do so.
According to the traders, a multi-agency committee formed to verify pending bills gave their claims a clean bill of health.
The traders were contracted to offer services under the slum upgrading programme, youth and women empowerment among other programmes.
Commenting on the petition on the floor of the House, MPs accused the government of not fulfilling its promise, leaving suppliers in huge debts.
Kiambu Town MP Jude Njomo said it was unfortunate that genuine suppliers and contractors who did business with the NYS were ignored as others stole money from the organisation and left.
“The Finance and Planning committee should sort out this matter once and for all. It is sad that those who did their work well are the ones suffering,” Mr Njomo said.
Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu said there was no reason to delay the petitioners’ dues.
“Institutions ask for money from us in the budget but do not pay pending bills. They need to sort out the eligible bills before coming to us to request for budgetary allocation. The problem is they come and ask for money then keep it in the accounts,” Dr Mulu said.
Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa said NYS traders should be paid in line with the President’s directive. Funyula MP Wilberforce Oundo said little progress had been made in settling pending bills.
“It’s now causing upheaval among the suppliers. Let the NYS identify the people who genuinely supplied them with goods and pay,” Dr Oundo said.
In a meeting with National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani in June, the Budget and Appropriation committee directed the National Treasury to develop a comprehensive database of all the pending bills, highlighting what had been done and what was yet to be done with a view to settling the debts by October.
In his 2021/2022 budget statement, Mr Yatani directed all ministries to pay all their pending bills by the next day.
Data from the National Treasury shows the total pending bills as at September last year stood at Sh346.2 billion, having risen from Sh334.2 billion in June.
The State Department of Infrastructure had the highest pending bills at Sh99 billion, nearly half of its Sh192.54 billion budgetary allocation for the new fiscal year. Of this, Sh31 billion was earmarked for compensation of landowners who were moved to pave the way for public infrastructure projects. BY DAILY NATION