The stock of incomplete projects in Kenya has risen to Sh1.3 trillion amid growing concerns that the government should stop starting new projects until it finishes the old ones.
Treasury PS Chris Kiptoo said at the National Budget 2023/24 public sector engagement last week the settlement of outstanding pending bills remains a big challenge to the government.
A report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu shows that ministries like Roads, Transport and Infrastructure have the most payouts on incomplete projects totalling Sh54.26 billion.
The Water and Sanitation Ministry has stalled projects worth Sh61.73 billion with a payout of Sh5.17 billion.
In counties, for instance, the health sector and general public services had the biggest chunk of incomplete projects, registering 29 and 17 projects, respectively.
Until June 2022, nine infrastructure projects sponsored by the county budgetary allocations are incomplete. The total number of stalled projects in counties is at a staggering 1,879. Interestingly, the agricultural sector has no stalled projects in the counties. The national and county governments owe suppliers, merchants and contractors close to Sh640 billion in pending bills from June 2005 to June 2022.
The Cabinet recently approved the establishment of the Pending Bills Verification Committee, which has been tasked with the auditing of all unpaid liabilities for the period between 2005 and 2022.
“The multi-agency committee, which has representatives from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the Law Society of Kenya, the Institute of Engineers of Kenya and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya, has been given a timeline of one year to examine and establish the integrity of all pending bills,” said Dr Kiptoo.
Cancelled, suspended
The Treasury also says the government is reappraising all stalled projects to establish whether they are aligned with its development agenda.
Those projects not aligned with the development agenda will be cancelled or suspended until resources for implementation are available. The Treasury will take the compliant ones on board and allocate resources for their completion.
All ministries have equally been asked to clear all expenditure carryovers the Treasury reports amounts to Sh77.5 billion from the 2022/23 financial year.
