City Hall has lost more than Sh300 million parking revenue due to weak enforcement by askaris.
According to the Auditor General Edward Ouko’s 2016-17 report, some 903, 039 vehicles parked in the more than 12,000 public slots in the city did not pay fees during the year.
The number of uncompliant vehicles represented 69 per cent of all the vehicles parked that year.
A total of 1,305, 440 vehicles were parked, of which only 402,401 ( 31 per cent) paid the requisite parking fee of Sh300 per day.
“This resulted in a probable revenue loss of Sh270, 911, 700 based on the street parking fees of Sh300 per vehicle,” read the report.
The report says the county government has not put in place adequate measures to curb the non-compliance.
This is despite the county enforcement officers having real-time information on vehicles parked in the the city relaid to them by JamboPay – automated revenue collection system.
The system shows the registration details of vehicles parked in city, the street parked and whether their owners have paid the fees.
The report also says the county officers were unclamping clamped vehicles without payment thus leading to loss of revenue.
“Examination of enforcement revenue revealed that the system was releasing clamped vehicles without payments or requisite approval,” the report says.
During the year, 25, 700 vehicles were clamped. Out of these, 15, 388 ( 60 per cent) were “unclamped without valid reasons,” the report says.
The county charges Sh2,000 to unclamp a vehicle. This implies that City Hall lost Sh30, 776, 000 during the year.
The county clamps vehicles that are double parked, parked at unauthorised places and those whose owners have not paid the required parking fees.
“Control over issuance and accountability over the clamps are weak and prone manipulation. For instance, there is no system for monitoring the activities of field officers on the clamped vehicles to ensure that those unclamped have paid,” ther report says.
In total, the county lost Sh301, 689, 700 revenue during the year in parking alone. City Hall automated parking fees collection in April in 2014 in a bid to increase revenue. This was after manual system was blamed of leakages that denied the county the much needed cash.
Currently, the county collects an average of Sh2.5 million in parking each day. Parking is one of the five key revenue streams for the Nairobi.
Other are trade licensing (single business permits), land rates, outdoor advertising and building permits.
The streams have however underperformed over the years landing the county county government in financial hols and hurting development in the capital.