• Some revenue streams such as markets do better when collections are done manually
• Budget committee to consider reducing the city budget from Sh33 billion to Sh19 billion because of a 'revenue collection crisis'
Image: MAUREEN KINYANJUI
City Hall is considering changing selected revenue streams back to manual and reducing fees into half to streamline revenue collection.
It says some revenue streams perform best when the manual payment system is used.
According to the Nairobi County Assembly Budget and Appropriations committee, some residents have been experiencing difficulties using online payment.
"In some streams like the market, people don't understand how the cashless payments are done. Most of the traders are of old age and some struggle with the system and end up making late payments," Embakasi MCA Michael Ogada said on Friday.
He said it was established that payments are done but no receipts are given, meaning there is no accountability.
A section of market traders had said some payments are usually done via M-Pesa pay bill number, which is inconvenient as they do not receive any receipt from the county.
"It is very inconvenient and impractical to have a pay bill payment method in a market. How does one attach pay bill payment on the product being paid for?" committee chairman Robert Mbatia commented.
As a result, Mbatia said the committee might consider having some revenue streams, such as the market, reverted to the manual system for efficient services.
Executive on the spot
The committee has ongoing inquiry meetings with the public and executive to establish why Nairobi cannot meet its revenue targets.
Some departments have failed to attend the inquiry. So far, officers issuing parking, outdoor and advertising and building permits have been no shows.
"We've observed laxity from the executive side. Some specific revenue streams are not really willing to cooperate to address the revenue challenges being faced. They are afraid of the public because they know they have excessively charged them," Ogada said.
"Every department that refuses to attend this meeting is going to have all the fees they currently charge reduced by half. They are overcharging and have more than enough."
The committee will come up with recommendations, including criminal charges on those found guilty of stealing public money.
Mbatia said they will consider reducing the next financial year's budget, considering the public is overcharged, yet revenue collected is below expectations.
"We shall have a very realistic budget this time. Currently, we have a Sh33 billion budget and we can even reduce it to Sh19 billion, where we just pay salaries and the rest will go to development," he said.
The budget committee expressed concern that the county is facing a revenue crisis. The collection has been reducing drastically, even as the county prepares for the exit of Jambo Pay next month. It had been contracted to collect revenues for the city.
Kidero's administration did better
Vice chairman Patrick Karani said the previous administration did better as the lowest revenue it ever collected was Sh11 billion.
"In the last financial year, we collected Sh10.1 billion local revenue. The focus this year shows we are likely going to perform the same or slightly lower," Karani said.
"We've not been able to surpass the performance of the former regime. We came in as a government promising very many services to residents. For us to achieve that, we need to find out where the money is going."
This financial year, Nairobi had a budget deficit of around Sh7 billion.
"I usually say money is being 'eaten at source'. It's true because since we started the inquiry, we've heard that Nairobians are paying, but the money is not hitting the account," Karani said.
Some executive officers are on the spot for failing to come out clearly on procedures and policies.
"We don't want blame games, but it appears that this is more of our problem than theirs (executive). But in reality, it is their problem. They have a story to tell on why Nairobi is having low collections, despite the huge budget allocation. We have evidence that the previous regime performed better than we've done," the vice chairman said.
The committee pledged to get to the bottom of problems in each revenue stream, pinpoint the loopholes and come up with recommendations and public-friendly policies.