Pending bills by the national government have rebounded to hit a new year high of Sh539.9 billion as of December 2024, reversing earlier relief from the commencement of payments on suppliers’ arrears.
The fresh increase comes as the National Treasury said that small suppliers owed up to Sh10 million would be prioritised in a new plan to clear Sh206 billion in historical arrears.
Pending bills by the national government have soared from Sh486.9 billion in March last year to tie a figure of Sh539.9 billion previously reached in December 2023.
“The total outstanding national government pending bills as of 31 December 2024 amounted to Sh539.9 billion,” the National Treasury stated.
“They comprise of Sh426.3 billion and Sh97.8 billion for the State Corporations and Ministries/State Departments and other government entities respectively.”
Out of the total, 51 percent are development pending bills while the balance is recurrent.
The pending bills verification committee inaugurated in November 2023 listed bills amounting to Sh474 billion out of Sh663 billion submissions.
The task force has however only given the green light for the payment of less than half of the arrears or Sh206 billion.
This came as the balance of claims lacked supportive documentation proving the supply of goods or offer of services to government institutions.
The National Treasury building in Nairobi.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
“We have discussed this (pending bills) with the President, and I think we will take this to the Cabinet so that if we have some space even in the supplementary budget, then we can pay all the bills owed up to Sh10 million… so that we can revamp people at lower strata of our economy. Then we will have a plan in the next financial year to see how we can pay the rest,” Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi told NTV’s ‘Fixing the Nation’ on February 3.
Suppliers of goods and services to the government have remained in agony over non-payments after the year-long audit.
The Association of Public Sector General Suppliers, an entity with over 4,000 suppliers to national and county governments noted at the start of 2025, that they were yet to see the results of the audit ordered in November 2023.
Pending bills have however continued to pile up despite the national government policy calling for the prioritisation of payment for all pending bills.
“The national government policy on clearance of pending bills continues to be in force,” the Treasury notes.
