There was a 12.2pc decline in pending bills by state corporations between September and December last year according to data by the National Treasury.
Unpaid bills reduced to Ksh 447.3 billion at the end the second quarter of the 2023/2024 financial year from Ksh 509.4 billion in the first quarter, data by the National Treasury show.
Recurrent expenses which account for 43.3pc of total pending bills reduced by Ksh 26.6 billion, from Ksh 220.2 billion to Ksh 193.6 billion, a 12.1pc reduction.
Unpaid development bills to contractors and projects and which constitute 56.7pc of total pending bills by state corporations also reduced by 12.3pc to stand at Ksh 253.7 billion from Ksh 289.2 billion, a 12,3pc decline.
At the end of the second quarter, unremitted Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) stood at Ksh 23.3 billion after a 7.75pc reduction while National Social Security Fund (NSSF) amounted to 428.6 million, an increase of 5.2pc from Ksh 407.2 million in September.
Personal emolument arrears by state firms also increased 8.3pc to stand at Ksh 12.1 billion from Ksh 11.1 billion. During the period, unremitted sacco deductions and unremitted staff loan deductions also climbed by 3pc and 2.5pc to stand at Ksh Ksh 2.8 billon and Ksh 2.5 billion respectively.
There was however a significant drop in the amount of pending bills by the national government through Ministries, State Departments and Independent Commissions and Offices.
According to treasury, total amount of unpaid bills by the national government as at December 2023 was Ksh 91.5 billion, a decline of Ksh. 29.7 billion from Ksh 121.2 billion as at September 30, 2023. Recurrent bills were 68.8pc while 31.2pc was development related bills.
“Pending bills for Ministries/State Departments were Ksh 85.6 billion while other independent Offices has Ksh 5.9 billion in pending bills as at December 2023,” said treasury.
Nonetheless, the National Treasury expects the amount of pendng bills to gradually decline as a result of ongoing scrutiny of existing National Government arrears accumulated between end June 2005 and end-June 2022 by the Pending Bills Verification Committee established by the Cabinet in September last year.
“The Committee is tasked to verify the stock of pending bills, provide recommendations for their settlement (e.g., payment, cancellation, legal actions for false or fraudulent claims), and propose measures to avoid future accumulation of arrears.”
