Senate Committee on Finance and Budget led by Acting Chairperson Senator Bonny Khalwale took task Migori County government over Ksh1.26 billion ($9.73 million) pending bills.

Senator Khalwale who was accompanied by Finance and Budget Committee Senators Eddy Oketch, Richard Onyonka and Joyce Korir had a special sitting with Migori County Assembly Members (MCAs) and later with Governor Ochilo Ayacko, questioned how 2022/2023 pending bill ballooned, the highest ever in the life of devolution government in the county.

The total pending bill in the county since 2013 has accrued to Ksh1.7 billion ($13.7 million) with the 2022/2023 bill of Ksh1.26 billion ($9.73 million) being the biggest.

Khalwale said the visit was not a witch-hunt, rather to establish service delivery and accountability on funds in the county. According to Senator Khalwale, county governments cannot account for Ksh16 billion ($123.6 million) raised by the Control of Budget, making oversight and accountability a serious exercise.

He called upon the governors to sort out issues of ghost workers to promote better service delivery and visit actual projects to ascertain money allocation justifications.

Senator Richard Onyonka addressed the need to not just pay the bills but also visit the sites to ascertain if the project’s worth and their impact on service delivery. Onyonka pointed out that the Senate will push for Ward funds to align with the National Constituency Development Funds (NG-CDF) and National Government Affirmative Action Funds (NGAAF) that are about to be legalised into law.

He urged the Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) and the county executive to do better in oversight and implementation to provide better service delivery to the Migori people.

Migori Senator Eddy Oketch disclosed that the Senate has partners including the Auditor General, Controller of Budget (COB), National Treasury and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) that help them to digest and verify pending bills in addressing issues of accountability and transparency.

Okech said that the majority of the pending bills emanate from small and medium entrepreneurs, and when they are not paid in time serious economic repercussions may occur affecting the society’s businesses.

The senator also elaborated that MCAs are important ingredients in making and passing county budgets that can be a blessing or a jinx in the devolution mechanism.

“As senate, we will continue fighting for county funds autonomy to give MCA’s independence to do their oversight well, champion their part and put the executive in check to realise the full benefits of devolution,” stated Okech.

Similarly, Senator Joyce Korir also urged MCA to play their oversight role and accountability and live up to what they scrutinise and approve in county chambers. Korir who is also the vice chair parliamentary service commission highlighted that the Senate is not an enemy of counties but rather serves to champion the interest of the electorates.

She urged the Migori MCA to ensure they pass a budget that will promote devolution to improve service delivery to citizens always to promote a decent societal transformative economic development.

“If we do not pass service-oriented budgets meant to improve the service delivery to our community, then history will judge us harshly in future”, concluded Korir.

On his path, Migori Governor Ochilo Ayacko committed that he would provide any relevant documents to the Senate committee for further scrutiny and set the record straight concerning the pending bills.

Ochilo however, committed that his administration will continue to pay verifiable bills when funds are available, noting that at no time has his administration refused to pay any approved bills.

• A Tell / KNA report /