Suspend projects for this financial year and pay pending bills, Kisumu contractors say

A section of Kisumu County Contractors address the press in Kisumu today where they want the County Government of Kisumu to suspend projects for this financial year so that they be paid pending bills-Photo By Dickson Odhiambo.

By Dickson Odhiambo

December 11, 2019

Suspend projects for this financial year and pay pending bills, Kisumu contractors say

VARIOUS contractors who have been doing business with the County Government of Kisumu now want the development projects for this financial year 2019/2020 be immediately suspended so as to pave way for payment of their pending bills running to close to shs 2.5Billion.

The about 1,000 Contractors under the Kisumu Contractors and Suppliers Association say the county Government of Kisumu is owing them huge sums of money inform of pending bills hence should be paid before the implementation of this financial year’s development projects.

Addressing the press in Kisumu today, the contractors led by the Chairman of the pending Bills Sub Committee Maurice Onyango Aloo said the issue of the County Government of Kisumu rolling out new projects for this fiscal year without paying them the pending bills is not in order at all.

“We want the pending Bills paid fully before the County Government of Kisumu embark on the implementation of this financial year’s development projects. They are owing us about shs 2.5 billion,” they say.

The Contractors say they have really suffered as a result of not being paid by the county Government, adding that they can’t even pay the debts they owe to various banks as well as paying the Kenya Revenue Authority’s taxes.

The contractors say they had already submitted a petition to the county assembly of Kisumu so as to deliberate on how the pending bills should be paid, adding that the Assembly has never deliberated on the issue nearly six months ago.

“We have even tried to make a follow up to this petition which we presented to the county Assembly of Kisumu during the days of the Speaker Onyango Oloo but nothing has come out from there as a result of this our petition,” they add.

But Kisumu County Assembly Acting Speaker Elisha Jack Oraro who spoke to the press over the phone has indeed confirmed that the Assembly had received the petition from the contractors concerning the pending bills but was quick to blame the previous leadership of the Assembly of not giving the issue a priority.

He says the Assembly has working on it and held talks with the Executive wing of the county Government which agreed to freeze some of the development projects so as to help in creating room for paying the pending bills.

He adds that by the end of this month, they will receive a list of the projects that will be frozen for the pending bills to be paid.

ENDS: