Correctional Services Principal Secretary Salome Muhia yesterday defended the large pending bills in her department, attributing them to frequent rationalisation of budgets by the Treasury.
According to a report from the Office of the Auditor General for the 2022/2023 financial year, the department had accrued Sh6.8 billion in pending bills owed to suppliers of goods and services during the period under review. This had prompted the intervention of MPs, who were considering the matter yesterday.
The PS, however, explained that the pending bills were historical and had been submitted to the Pending Bills Verification Committee, which was constituted by President William Ruto in 2022. This, the committee heard, had also delayed their repayment process.
“The bills have accumulated from all prisons across the country, and at some point, it was agreed that they would be paid from the headquarters. However, they are still with the verification committee, which has not approved them,” she observed.
Muhia further expressed frustration with the rationalisation and delayed exchequer releases, noting that the amount required to feed an inmate per day was Sh275, but only Sh192 was being released.
“Until the exchequer is released, our hands are really tied. Even if we don’t get an allocation in the budget, we must procure food to ensure that riots do not break out in prison,” added the PS.
Funyula MP Wilberforce Oundo, however, was not satisfied with the answer.
“When you supply green grams or uniforms to your department, it is something that can be seen. I do not understand what is being verified,” he posed.
Mathioya MP Edwin Mugo suggested that the committee summons the Pending Bills Verification Committee to shed more light on the matter.
“We need them to appear before us and give us the total cost of pending bills, timelines for payments, and more,” he said.
His position was affirmed by the Committee chairperson, Mwale.
“We will now invite the committee to appear before us so they can provide a way forward,” he directed.
Muhia, who was appearing before the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee, told the House team that continued budget cuts and rationalisations by the National Treasury had largely impacted its ability to pay the pending bills, which had accrued since 2015.
“…The problem has been that once our budget is approved by Parliament, it is usually revised in the Supplementary I estimates, meaning we are unable to meet our obligations,” stated Muhia.
In her submission, she also stated that the pending bills had since been reduced to Sh3 billion but insisted on the need for the Treasury to ring-fence its allocations to the department to avoid the accumulation of bills at the expense of suppliers.
Muhia told the committee that in the last financial year, for instance, the department's entire development budget, which was in excess of Sh1 billion, had been slashed and rationalised to Sh40 million. This, she said, was not enough to effectively run the docket.
The Butere MP Tindi Mwale-led committee, however, took the PS to task, questioning why the bills had not been cleared for nearly 10 years, while simultaneously highlighting the plight of suppliers.
“For the last two years that I have been in this committee, I have noticed that some departments with heavy expenditure do not incur such heavy pending bills. Is it that your department cannot convince Treasury for funding during sector meetings?” posed Lugari MP Nabii Nabwera.
Aldai MP Maryanne Keitany suggested that financial foul play could have led to such high bills in the correctional services department.
“It looks like there could be more than meets the eye because other departments that have appeared before us do not have such high figures in pending bills,” she stated.
