The county government of Kisii has decried failure by the national government to release funds to the county due to pending bills of up to Sh300 million owed to various contractors.
Speaking, in Kisii town during Jamhuri Day celebrations, Kisii Governor James Ongwae said that they had not yet received funds which were crippling development projects launched by his government.
"We have not yet received finances from the national government to enable us to continue with more development projects we have due to the debt of 300 million we owed contractors," said the second-term governor.
He, however, insisted that they were working on clearing the debts and later writing to the ministry of treasury for the funds to be released.
"We are still working on it and by two weeks we are going to clear that debt so that we write to the ministry of finance in the national government to fund us so that we continue with our development agenda," said Governor Ongwae.
Branding the delay as intentional, he said that it is, however, a norm by the treasury to delay the release of funds and that they are supposed to eliminate so that they fund the county governments early and enable them not to clear their debts in time and also not to create more debts.
"I also request the national government to eliminate this norm of them making delays in funding county to governments so that they send funds in time hence we will not create more debts as a county government." he added.
Ongwae remarks come shortly after the Council of Governors led by Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya moved to court to block the National Treasury's decision to blacklist 35 counties due to pending bills amounting to millions of money.
In a statement, Oparanya said that the decision of the national treasury not to release funds on time was in contravention of article 219 of the constitution of Kenya.
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