Counties have to pay their bills on time

Counties should find a quick and realistic way of dealing with the unpaid bills piling up by the day.

Good governance is about prudence in use of cash and, importantly, honouring contracts and facilitating service delivery.

Counties have miserably failed on this front. On several instances, they argued they cannot pay bills because of lack of funds.

That the National Treasury has perennially delayed in releasing cash to them, rendering them unable to not only pay bills but also provide routine and basic services.

There is some truth in that. The Treasury is notorious for the delays and this has become particularly acute in recent years as the government stares at an economic crisis.

But the whole truth is that counties simply do not pay, whether they have cash or not.

This time round, the Treasury has paid out cash to the counties but they have not cleared the bills. This means there are other reasons that they do not want to discuss.

Pending bills have a history. At inception in 2013, counties inherited structures and operations of the defunct local authorities and included in this was financial liabilities.

Inevitably, they were duty-bound to sort them out. As new entities, county governments embarked on restructuring and creating their own structures, ostensibly to enable them to deliver on their mandates.

But this became a disaster. Counties created unsustainable structures and bloated workforces but no commensurate services.

But the current practice at the counties is simply appalling. Capitation from the national government is gobbled up through meaningless expenditure.

Funds are lost through corruption, pilferage and wastefulness and the consequence is that counties have become a bottomless pit.

That three governors are on suspension as they face corruption charges is an indictment on the devolved units.

Added to this is the perverted thinking where new governors who came to power in 2017 trashed and refused to pay bills or continue with projects initiated by their predecessors.

That is absolutely counter-intuitive. Counties are not personal but public entities and the role of governors is to provide public service.

Given this backdrop, we note the frustration by the national government, which has now threatened to sue governors who fail to pay bills.

A situation where governors have to be forced to honour their commitments is shameful.

But it is inevitable as many people are facing financial distress simply because they tied money with goods and services that they provided to the counties.

Counties have no business withholding payments for services rendered to them. Let them pay up.