Government pays arrears

THE Government has so far paid ?239.2 billion to both local and foreign contractors as road arrears leaving a balance of ?210.5 billion.

A source at the Ministry of Finance which disclosed this in an interview, however, said out of the outstanding balance of ?210.5 billion, as much as ?113.9 billion of the claims submitted by some contractors were in dispute. Accordingly, the source said full scale investigations have begun to establish their authenticity or otherwise before payment could be effected.

It said until investigations are completed, the ministry is satisfied with the remaining arrears of ?96.6 billion as the certificates have been found to be genuine.

The non-payment of the arrears over a long period has raised serious concerns among contractors as they have been locked up and described the government’s inability to pay them to be a disincentive.

A number of contractors interviewed commended the government for the payments effected so far and urged it to expedite action on its investigations into the disputed certificates.

They maintained that pre-financing such projects these days involves a lot of sacrifices and there was, therefore, the need for such payments to be effected as expeditiously as possible to ensure cost effectiveness and value for money.

In a related development, the Head of Non Tax Revenue Unit (NTR) of the Ministry of Finance, Mr Enoch Cobbina, said the ministry is in the process of preparing the 2003 revenue and expenditure budget, including NTR budget for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

He said it is the ministry’s policy to work with MDAs to remove bottlenecks as well as institute measures to improve the mobilisation and accounting for revenue.

Mr Cobbina explained that the ministry is also working in concert with MDAs to review rates that are obsolete. To this end, he said these bodies will be provided with the needed logistics to enable them to function effectively.