Auditor General attributes growing pending bills to wage expenses

The Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has urged county governments to downsize their workforce in order to cut down the on recurrent expenditure.

According Gathungu, the devolved units are spending more on paying a bloated workforce, which has contributed to the increase of pending bills.

The Office of the Auditor General plans to release audited financial statements for government agencies for the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 financial year in two weeks.

However, the Auditor General says preliminary reports show that most county governments have a bloated work force that account for the highest expenditure by the devolved units.

She is urging the devolved units to consider restructuring their payroll and prudently employ staff.

While advising institutions to prudently borrow, the Auditor General says the proposal by the National Treasury to continue bailing out institutions that are struggling financially should be limited to those that are economic viable.

Public entities will be required to start including all their assets when balancing their books as government institutions transition from cash based to accrual accounting for public institutions.