We need pending bills paid within seven days, Kisumu contractors say

 A section of members of Kisumu Contractors and Suppliers Association led by the Chairman of the Pending Bills Chairman Maurice Onyango Aloo addressing the press in Kisumu today where they say that the payment should be done within seven days-Photo By Dickson Odhiambo

By Dickson Odhiambo

January 16, 2020.

We need pending bills paid within seven days, Kisumu contractors say

CONTRACTORS and Suppliers who have been doing business with the County Government of Kisumu have asked the county Government to make payment of their pending bills within the next seven days.

Under the Kisumu Contractors and Suppliers Association, the Contractors say the issue of payment of their pending bills is long overdue hence they need to be paid within a period of the next seven days.

Addressing the press today after visiting the office of the County Executive Committee Member in charge of Finance and Economic Planning, the contractors said they have been patient enough while waiting for the payment which they termed as having taken too long to materialize.

Led by the Chairman of the Pending Bills Committee Maurice Onyango Aloo, the contractors say they want the county Government of Kisumu to honor President Uhuru Kenyatta’s last year's directive to counties to clear pending bills.

Aloo says the County Government of Kisumu is owing the contractors and suppliers an estimated shs 2.7 billion in form of pending bills.

“We have been suffering all along since we have not been paid our money which we worked for hence has become pending bills. We are now demanding that we be paid within seven days so as to help us sort out the debts that we have,” they say.

The contractors later visited the County Assembly of Kisumu Speaker’s Office so as to know when the Assembly can convene a special sitting so as to discuss the Supplementary Budget to allow the payment of the pending bills.

The County Assembly of Kisumu is currently on a long recess after adjourning its sitting early December last year and will resume its sessions next month of February.

Kisumu County Executive Committee Member in charge of Finance and Economic Planning George Okong’o who held a meeting with the contractors late last year said they have sat down with the contractors and have tried to iron out the issues the contractors have raised including the issue of paying the pending bills.

He said the will start paying the pending bills in line with the National Government directive that was given recently.

“The national Government has directed all the county Governments to put a road map on how and when to start paying pending bills and we will basically do that,” Okong’o said.
ENDS: