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Marsabit County government on Tuesday appealed to contractors and suppliers to be patient, reiterating their commitment to pay them as soon as the money will be available.
This follows intense pressure from the contractors and suppliers to push the county government to pay them for the jobs already done.
The contractors have persistently complained about the delayed payments.
Speaking to members of the press, county spokesperson Alexander Barrile Abduba revealed that the county government owes its contractors and suppliers Sh447.24 million FOR the 291 genuine projects done.
He said the county government has so far paid Sh100 million to the contractors and suppliers as pending bills.
“The county government has paid Sh100 million, leaving a balance of about Sh337 million,” he said
Barrile pointed out that Governor Mohamud Ali’s-led administration was doing everything possible to ensure payments are made in accordance with the provisions of the county budget.
“We are committed to paying all the genuine pending bills,” said Barrile.
The county spokesperson revealed that only Sh447.24 million of the total Sh1.4 billion being claimed as pending bills are genuine.
He said there shall be further scrutiny of the 590 projects before payments are done to the contractors.
Marsabit County Governor Mohamud Ali two months ago formed an 8-member pending bills committee with the mandate to inspect all the projects done by the contractors in a period spanning ten years.
During the inspection, the committee found many of the purported projects undone with some of the projects which are incomplete reflected on papers as work done.
The committees who are still finalizing its report discovered that some contractors ask for full payments without work to show for it.
The committee on pending bills was established under the Kenya Gazette to help audit and authenticate the projects done by the contractors.
The spokesperson said the establishment of the committee was not meant for a witchhunt but to ensure only credible contractors were paid.
He said the exercise was necessary to help the county government to undertake due diligence in payment of the genuine projects.
Barrile said governor Mohamud’s administration will only clear genuine bills that have all supporting documents and proof of the work done or service rendered.
He said there were several cases of contractors agitating to be paid yet they had not done any work while others did shoddy work.
“The pending bills committee which was formed by the governor is critical to establish the genuine contractors who should benefit from the payout,” he said
He urged the contractors and suppliers who are yet to be paid upon verification for their services to remain patient as the executive works to clear pending bills.
“We cannot waste our much-needed development funds in sub-standards, incomplete and poor quality work,” he said
Barrile asked contractors who have been awarded county tenders to adhere to the stipulated timeframe to avert cases of delays in the completion of projects.
He said a number of contracts exceed the given timelines hence pulling back the county in terms of development.
He says poor project implementation and outright abandonment of the project are attributed to a lack of technical know-how on a specific project.
He insisted that the devolved unit under the leadership of Governor Mohamud Ali will not hesitate to blacklist any contractor who fail to perform his work satisfactorily. BY THE STAR