CORD proposes Prompt Payment Bill to curb graft

The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) will sponsor a bill to ensure suppliers are paid on time as a way of curbing graft.

CORD leader Raila Odinga, while addressing a presser at his Capitol Hill office in Nairobi on Thursday, November 24, said that the proposed Prompt Payment Bill, 2016, will be sponsored by CORD and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

The Bill, Odinga said, will go a long way in helping curb graft at the National and County level.

“The Bill, if it becomes law, shall apply to all public authorities that are procuring entities in both the National Government and County Governments,” said Odinga.

The Bill proposes, among other things; all invoices for the supply of goods and services must be settled within 30 days of submission to the government; that any questions about an invoice must be raised within the said 30 days and communicated to the supplier in writing before the end of the said period; all such queries must be resolved within 10 days from the date they are raised and communicated to the supplier.

The Bill also proposes that every public authority that is a procuring entity establishes an internal appeals system to review all decisions made not to settle an invoice.

It also proposes establishment of a Public Invoices Settlement Tribunal to hear appeals from any decisions made by internal appeals mechanisms of every public authority not to pay an invoice.

Odinga said that the Bill is a response to “a real dire situation confronting those who supply goods and services to the government.”

“Partly because of corruption and also because the government is broke, suppliers are not being paid. Many suppliers are being harassed and have been reported to Credit Reference Bureau by banks from which they borrowed money to finance government tenders,” he said.

“Many young people who responded to government promises on tenders are dejected because no payment is forthcoming despite frequent presidential orders that they be paid.”

He noted that the area of payment of public invoices has the highest prevalence of corruption in Kenya.

“Almost no invoice to government is ever paid without the supplier surrendering a percentage of the invoiced sum to various officers who authorize payment for supplies.  Many times, the gravy train runs much higher up the ranks in government offices, reaching Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries with accountants, clerk and messengers claiming their shares too.”

He argued that the power exercised by public officers over the settlement of invoices is currently absolute and has resulted in business men being blackmailed into paying loyalties on every pending payment due to them.

“Every signature required to approve the payment is a toll station.”