Nairobi MCAs Sound Alarm on City Revenue Collection
The Nairobi County Assembly is concerned about the city’s revenue collection system’s openness and accountability.
Friday, the Energy and ICT Committees of the assembly reported that one year later, the administration of Governor Johnson Sakaja did not have access to the county’s revenue collection system.
The revelations occurred at a time when the EACC identified Nairobi as one of the counties with significant accountability deficiencies in their revenue management systems.
“It is instructive that we found a complete lack of transparency in the entire manner in which the Nairobi County’s revenue is being collected, reported, and accounted for,” said Robert Alai, Kileleshwa MCA.
Vice-chairman of the PAC committee Alai expressed concern that the Finance Department of the executive has no knowledge or control over how revenue collection in Nairobi is administered.
“CEC for Finance is helpless and even the Chief Officer and Directors aren’t aware what is happening. This must stop!” he stated.
In a statement, the committees also expressed concern regarding the opaque nature of Nairobi County’s revenue collection.
They listed seven management irregularities in the Nairobi Revenue System.
The MCAs asserted that the current and former CeC for Finance are unaware of the current collector and superintendent of the Nairobi Revenue System (NRS), also known as the County’s revenue system.
ALSO READ:
- Ruto’s Stern Warning to Tycoon Over Ksh30M Debt
- Court Suspends Issuance of 22,000 Title Deeds in Kajiado
- Kenyan Tech Whiz Philip Thigo Joins UN AI Advisory Team
In addition, it was discovered that the Finance and ICT sectors under the executive do not know the location of the NRS’s physical and cloud servers.
“The Finance executive members do not have administrative rights to the current revenue collection on the system,” reads the statement.
The MCAs also asserted that the assembly lacks clarity regarding the number of bank accounts linked to the revenue collection system.
Moreover, the MCAs assert that there is presently no valid contract between Nairobi City County and Nairobi Revenue System(NRS) as the principal collector, as they emerged before the conclusion of the Nairobi Metropolitan Service term.
“When the Nairobi Metropolitan term expired (NMS), all functions ought to have been reversed to the County Government, yet very suspicions, there are concerns or sub-contraction of revenue collection by KRA then to Nairobi Revenue System in unclear and un-procedural way,” reads the statement.
The MCAs also noted that, since the advent of devolution, there has never been a comprehensive audit of all revenue systems deployed in Nairobi City County to provide the public with the accountability necessary for this vital infrastructure.
Alai stated that NRS automates all 135 revenue streams, so when the system is down, everything is down.
The MCAs expressed optimism that Nairobi’s revenue sources can generate as much as Sh43 billion annually.
“The drive to automate government services and make them available online is commendable. AutomaAon shouldn’t end on the revenue streams. Non-revenue functions automation is an aspect forgotten in the campaign by the President,” Alai said.
It was discovered in March 2023 that the Kenya Revenue Authority is still responsible for revenue collection in Nairobi City County.
This is despite the current administration taking office in August of last year.
ALSO READ:
- Breakdown of Ministries Spending Millions on Fuel and Travel
- Babu Owino Flies In Italian Tycoon ‘Owner’ Of All Kirima Land
- MPs Grill KBC CEO on Missing Land Title Deeds
Nairobi Finance executive Charles Kerich stated that even though the transition process between the former NMS and City Hall ended in November of last year, the revenue system was never returned to the county and the transfer process is still ongoing.
In addition, Kerich stated that only a few individuals in the finance and ICT sectors have access to the Nairobi Revenue System and observe the daily revenue collection.
“The system is yet to be transferred to the county. We were only given the viewership rights and we can check the revenue being collected,” he said then.
The finance director further disclosed that City Hall does not presently know the location of the system servers.
“We do not know the physical location though and as it has been stated, the process of transfer is yet to begin,” Kerich revealed.
He spoke during a committee meeting involving the ICT committee, the Nairobi ICT, and Finance and economic sectors, and the ICT committee.
When NMS was implemented, KRA was required to collect county revenues.
Since the NMS’s tenure had ended, the Collection of Revenue was to be returned to the county.
Nairobi MCAs Sound Alarm on City Revenue Collection
