Ministry to halt new road projects over unpaid bills

A road under construction. Infrastructure PS John Mosonik says the ministry has pending bills amounting to Sh8 billion. FILE 

By EDWIN MUTAI,

In Summary

• Infrastructure PS says allocated funds used to settle pending payments.

The Transport, Energy and Information Technology ministries have cumulative pending bills of Sh19.39 billion that have not been settled owing to the confusion in the devolution of a number of functions.

As a result of the huge bill, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure will not undertake any new road projects in the current financial year due to lack of development funds.

Joseph Njoroge, the Energy and Petroleum principal secretary who also doubles up as the chair of the Energy, Infrastructure and Information ministries sector, said the pending bills include Sh17.8 billion on the development vote and Sh1.59 billion in the expenditure vote.

“Most bills emanate from backlog of payment of claims towards the closure of financial year. However, the trend of pending bills has been rising in the development vote mainly as a result of delayed payments for contracted civil works and professional services, variation of contracts, austerity measures and delays in Exchequer releases to facilitate payments,” Mr Njoroge told the House Budget and Appropriation committee.

Infrastructure principal secretary John Mosonik said the ministry of Transport and Infrastructure alone has pending bills amounting to Sh8 billion having spent almost all the current development allocation to settle a bill of Sh25 billion that was outstanding as at end of June this year.

As a result, Mr Mosonik said no new roads will be constructed this year and the remaining funding will be directed towards completion of pending projects.

“All the money we were allocated in the current budget has gone to pay contractors to avoid delay in construction of works. We had a pending bill to the tune of Sh25 billion that had accumulated over the last three years.

“The Treasury, however, allocated us Sh18.8 billion meaning that we will have a deficit of Sh8.2 billion that will be rolled over to the next financial year,” Mr Mosonik told the committee that is scrutinising sector funding for the next financial year as part of the budget-making process brought about by changes in the Constitution.

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He revealed that the ministry is on the verge of concluding negotiations with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to upgrade the Voi-Mwatate, Eldoret-Kitale-Lodwar-Nadapal-South Sudan, Ngong and Outer Ring roads.

“These are donor-funded projects that we intend to start later this year. World Bank has agreed to our proposal to fund 100 per cent of the projects and then the government can put in the required 30 per cent counterpart funding later,” he said.

Mr Njoroge said the sectors had raised the issue of pending bills with the Treasury and the money will be factored into the supplementary budget that will be tabled for approval before Parliament goes on recess on December 5.

Mr Njoroge told the committee chaired by Mbeere South MP Mutava Musyimi that the delay in clearing pending bills was compounded by the transfer of part of the ministries allocations to county governments.

“We have had problems from the beginning of the year when money meant for Rural Electrification Authority (REA), Kenya Rural Roads Authority (Kerra) and Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) were transferred to counties where governors have refused to refund,” he said.

Mr Mosonik said the transfer of Kerra and Kura money amounting to Sh29 billion had hampered development of the road infrastructure owing to non-payment of contractors from July this year.