- In her audit report, Nancy Gathungu noted that the Nairobi County government lacked a valid contract with the Nairobi Pay system's vendor.
- However, governor Sakaja said there was no reason the government would have a service agreement with itself as it is the one that developed the system.
Image: FILE
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has clarified that government entities developed the city's revenue collection system, Nairobi Pay, internally.
The county boss dismissed reports that external vendors developed the Nairobi Pay system without a valid contract with the county government.
In response to audit queries raised by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, Sakaja insisted that Nairobi Pay is a robust system devolved before he came into office.
Speaking in an interview with Citizen TV on Wednesday night, Sakaja revealed that he had rejected attempts by various vendors who wanted the county to migrate to another revenue system immediately after he took over office.
"Nairobi Pay was a system set up during the period when the national government had transferred functions, the NMS running the county then. Former President Uhuru Kenyatta together with the Joint National Mapping (JNAM) developed a system for revenue collection," he said.
The governor said that the system was developed when the County Government had transferred functions to the National Government and the Kenya Revenue Authority mandated to collect revenue in the city.
"We looked at the system, it looked robust. At the time, the responsibility to collect revenue had been transferred to KRA. When we transferred it, KRA did not have a system, so as a national government, we developed the system. There is no company called Nairobi Pay,'' Sakaja said.
Nairobi County, in collaboration with the now-defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) and KRA had launched the Sh160 million system to enhance accountability, raise revenue collection, and curb corruption across the devolved unit.
Gathungu had raised concerns about Nairobi’s revenue collection system, Nairobi Pay, revealing it lacked clarity and had no service agreement with the county government.
In her audit report, Gathungu noted that the Nairobi County government lacked a valid contract with the Nairobi Pay system's vendor.
The auditor also noted that the county government did not establish a service level agreement (SLA) defining the terms of support for the system.
However, on Wednesday, Sakaja insisted that the Nairobi Pay was not the product of an external vendor but a system developed internally by government entities.
He said a government initiative would not require a service level agreement as mentioned by Gathungu.
The governor said he acted prudently upon taking office by allowing the then-existing revenue system, Nairobi Pay, to remain in place as it was robust.
"When every Governor takes office, they encounter numerous vendors offering their systems with pricing proposals, but I said No. Let's examine the existing system's effectiveness and potential to better serve Nairobi," he said.
"So after reviewing all the systems, we said why don't we strengthen this system that has been worked on using heavy government resources and they had no need of a contract with themselves because it was national government. The national government cannot have a contract with itself. They can create a team to develop that system."