The Prisons Department has cleared Sh5.7 billion of its pending bills.
The bills were cleared as payable by a multi-agency team that has been sifting through the long-standing Sh6.2 billion debt claims.
The payments are ongoing ‘with strict adherence to financial, audit, and accounting procedures.’
In a brief to the Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, Correctional Services Principal Secretary Zeinab Hussein said the payments will be systemised per region.
The bills have been classified in 10 regions of which suppliers at stations in Northeastern have already started receiving money in their accounts.
“Suppliers who have not been paid are requested to exercise patience as the department proceeds with the payments since the exercise involves handling voluminous payment documents,” Hussein said in the brief obtained by the Star.
A payment voucher will be checked if the amounts are as listed in the National Treasury and at the department’s pending claims register.
To be established is whether the outstanding claims have adequate supporting payments as per the secretariat and the multi-agency team.
Pending claims will also have to be authenticated in the IFMIS system before further processing by the accounts team.
In the strict procedure employed in the payment process, the documents will be serialized, examined, fed on IFMIS, invoiced, validated, approved by the AIE holder, and also by the head of the accounting unit.
Cashiers will then upload the instructions through internet banking where they are approved and finally transmitted to the suppliers’ account.
“Suppliers are informed that the exercise is being conducted transparently, fairly, and accountably thus no need for third parties and brokers purporting to assist them,” the PS said.
The payments, some dating back to 2009, have been a subject of contention after the department declined to honor them as they were presented.
The pending bills were subjected to three reviews by various multi-agency teams, external and internal auditors – all of which concluded they were non-payable.
It was after the Cabinet reviewed the criteria for payment that the claims were unlocked.
The revised criteria provided that claims be checked for evidence that the supplier was prequalified in the financial year of the purported supplies.
Also checked was evidence that the prices quoted were the same as in the prequalification and that the goods were ordered by Kenya Prisons.
Evidence that the goods and services were duly received by a competent officer at the receiving station was also checked.
