Court suspends order requiring Sonko’s govt to pay Sh6million
A court has lifted an order requiring Nairobi City County government to pay Sh6.2 million to a company that supplied the county with printing materials.
Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko told the court that a consent order, requiring the County Government to pay the amount to General Supplies, was obtained without the consent of his government.
Chief Magistrate Edna Nyaloti, consequently set aside the orders obtained by a law firm on behalf of General Supplies Ltd. According to Mr Sonko, the orders were wrongfully obtained.
In the order signed between lawyers representing both the County Government and the printing company, the County’s bankers at Cooperative were to release the money to the company’s law firm.
REVENUE ACCOUNT
The bank alerted the county on Thursday informing it that it had received the order requiring it to release the funds to the law firm, prompting the governor to move to court.
The magistrate set aside the order issued on April 16, and directed the parties to appear before her on April 25 for the hearing of the case.
On April 17, the County’s acting chief Finance officer Ekaya Alumasi advised the county to forward the matter to the Pending Bills Committee for verification.
According to Mr Alumasi, PFM Act 2012 requires all revenue collected by the county government be sent to Central Bank of Kenya and further mandates the controller of Budget to approve all payments drawn from the County revenue account.
General Supplies Ltd had moved to court demanding payment from the county, but on Monday, April 16, even before the matter was resolved, the lawyers entered a consent with the law firm agreeing that the county would pay Sh 6,234,829.65.