We will not borrow to pay salaries — President Ruto

President William Ruto said his administration will not borrow to fund civil servant payrolls amid threats of a boycott in an effort to push the Treasury Department to release government payrolls.

Thousands of public service employees have yet to receive their March salaries, and some county government workers are due up to three months’ wages.

“We will not borrow money to pay salaries,” the president said on Tuesday.

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Conservatives have protested the failure of the Treasury Department to release money to provinces for the fourth consecutive month since December. By the end of March, the provinces said they owed Sh122.1 billion, with the Conservatives blaming the money withheld for non-payment of provincial workers.

Counties are due Sh29.6 billion for December, NIS 31.45 billion for January and February each, and NIS 29.6 billion for March.

This is the longest period that delegated units have gone without receiving their fair share of the revenue from the Treasury.

The Ruto administration pledged to cut the recurring budget by Sh300 billion to bring “our country into a sane state” where the state does not “borrow to finance recurrent expenditures”.

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