Nairobi — The National Government's pending bills dropped by Sh106.6 billion to Sh516.27 billion in the full year ending June 30, 2024, partly driven by the recent state's initiative to clear outstanding debt.

Latest Controller of Budget (CoB) data shows that the country's debt to various entities and individuals stood at Sh622.82 billion as of June 30, 2023.

The arrears are distributed across various entities, including state corporations, which owe suppliers Sh379.81 billion, followed by ministries, departments, and agencies (Sh136.45 billion).

In a similar period last year, corporations were owed Sh443.6 billion by suppliers and contractors, whereas MDAs owed Sh179.22 billion.

"MDAs' pending bills are mainly historical pending bills comprising Kshs.100.73 billion (74 per cent) for recurrent expenditure and Kshs.35.72 billion (26 per cent) for development expenditure," the CoB said in the report.

"In FY 2023/24, MDAs pending bills declined by Kshs.42.18 billion, comprising Kshs.30.81 billion for recurrent and Kshs.11.37 billion for development expenditure," it continued.

"The State Corporations' pending bills include payments due to contractors/projects, suppliers, unremitted statutory and other deductions, and pension arrears for Local Authorities Pension Trust. The highest percentage of the State Corporations' pending bills (Kshs.235.00 billion as of 30th June 2024) was for Contractors/Projects at 62 per cent followed by Pension Arears at 13 per cent."

In June last year, the Cabinet approved a Pending Bills Verification Committee to audit the government's uncleared bills between June 2005 and 2022.

Last month, for example, the National Treasury started to receive pending bills and claim submissions from the public aimed at clearing outstanding arrears owed by the government.

"For all this period, there are areas where the government was not able to settle various bills for various reasons and we have in the past received a number of pending bills which were submitted by the various state departments and agencies," Tirop Kosgei, Vice Chairman of the of the Pending Bills Verification Committee, then said.

As of January 31, 2024, a total of 1,537 companies had submitted unpaid pending bill requests to the state worth Sh145.5 billion, distributed to 38 MDAs.