The national government is yet to pay Sh72 million for the installation of surveillance cameras in the city in 2013.
Chinese firm M/S Nanjing LES Information Technology Limited installed the cameras under the Sh437 million Nairobi Integrated Urban Surveillance System project.
The project was aimed at improving security.
The firm on Thursday told MCAs it was yet to be paid Sh72 million by the national government.
M/S Nanjing was awarded the contract in September 2012 to install a traffic management system, a control centre and associated software.
It completed the project in November 14, 2013 and handed it over to the national government's Interior ministry.
M/S Nanjing manager Michael Lu told the Public Accounts Committee that they have severally requested for the payment in vain.
“The firm was not paid in full when we handed over the project. There is Sh72 million remaining,” Lu said.
National government’s metropolitan department official Silas Gitau said the money has not been paid because the entire project was not budgeted for.
“The payment depends on the availability of money in the budget and I don’t think it was fully available in the budget at that time,” Gitau said.
Both Gitau and Lu faulted City Hall for the malfunctioning of fibre optic cables used by the system.
Gitau said City Hall contractors cut power and communication cables along Lusaka-Mombasa-Lang’ata roads roundabout in 2014 rendering the CCTVs faulty.
He said the cables were in good condition when the project was handed over to the government.
The faulty cables have caused a communication breakdown between the control centre and the police headquarters. The control centre is located at City Hall Annex.
The destruction cut communication between 26 cameras and the command centre and the police monitoring unit at Jogoo House.
"Vandalism and cutting of fibre optic cables by City Hall contractors resulted in the transmission problem. Whoever cut the cables was supposed to repair them," Gitau said.
Twenty-six of the 42 CCTV cameras in the city center are not working making the system unreliable.
But City Hall’s public works official Fredrick Karanja denied the contractors who cut the fibres weere hired by the county government.
“We do not own them. We only issued permits for the works," Karanja said.
The Auditor-General's report for 2015-16 said the project was a failure.
There were claims the cameras produced low-quality images that could not be relied on by security agencies
Gitau said the Ministry of Lands agreed to pay for the repair of cameras and lights along the University Way- Uhuru Highway and Lusaka roundabouts at a cost of Sh7.2 million.
In December 2013, cameras at the University Way-Uhuru Highway roundabout were destroyed by rioting University of Nairobi students.
The repair would cost the county at least Sh5.4 million. Questions were raised why City Hall undertook to foot the damages caused by university students who are under the national government.
But Karanja said security was a priority for City Hall.