Ruto promises to clear Sh600bn pending bills

President William Ruto has said that the government will sort out pending bills. https://rb.gy/ta0xb2

Transcript

00:00 It is my pleasure to congratulate the Chairman, Mr. Uko, and the Vice-Chair, and the members

00:06 of the Pending Bills Verification Committee for your appointment.

00:11 As you are all aware, when I took office, I committed to bring the matter of public

00:19 sector pending bills to a speedy and conclusive resolution.

00:24 As we are all aware, again, the last time there was an effort to alleviate this challenge

00:31 of pending bills was about 17 years ago.

00:35 It is yet another moment in our history that we need to clean our slate and do justice

00:42 to everybody, especially the people who do business with government, and more particularly

00:52 the micro, small, and medium enterprises that are the largest suppliers of government, who

00:59 today our stock of pending bills is all the way to above 600 billion.

01:10 That is the money government at various levels owe our suppliers, many, I think almost 100

01:18 percent Kenyan, but many of them also small businesses.

01:26 The government is therefore committed to meeting its obligation as and when they fall due as

01:32 a matter of policy and legal obligation.

01:37 Besides a culture of overdue pending bills, it serves no purpose other than to drive business

01:44 into ruin, force micro, small, and medium enterprises to shut down, and increase unemployment

01:51 leading to general underperformance in our economy.

01:56 It is the duty of government to facilitate better economic performance through expeditious

02:02 resolution of government expenditures, reduce pending bills, and restore confidence of suppliers

02:11 and other stakeholders.

02:14 This will generate hope to our great men and women who have ventured into the micro, small,

02:20 and medium enterprise space and desire to provide efficient, effective services and

02:28 goods to government.

02:31 The government promised creditors that we shall advise them on the mechanism for the

02:36 resolution of genuine outstanding payments.

02:41 We have therefore constituted this committee as promised, and this is a clear demonstration

02:46 that we are committed to settling verified pending bills owed by government within the

02:53 shortest time possible.

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