Garissa County Assembly has passed Sh7.5 billion budget, which had initially been rejected after the executive expressed concern about some contentious subjects.
During the presentation of the committee report on budget and appropriation, Abdirahman Idriss, who is the committee chairman, affirmed that the executive had addressed the issues pointed out during the rejection of the budget and resubmitted the same to the assembly once again.
He also told members of the assembly that various documents including debt management strategy paper, revised annual development plan as well as a memorandum giving an explanation about deviation from the approved county fiscal strategy has been submitted to the relevant persons.
Idris shocked the house when he revealed that the county government has accumulated unpaid debts amounting to Sh2.7 billion because of their failure to meeting all the financial obligations at its disposal.
“The county failed its revenue collection targets over the last three financial years and disbursement from exchequer has been piecemeal," Idris said.
He added: "This made the county government fail in meeting its financial obligations to service providers and contractors,”
The Garissa County has spared Sh2.739 billion that will be used in the payment of the pending bills.