• Reverting to the manual collection is the only alternative available
• ICT chief officer Halkano Waqo sought to allay fears of a looming crisis
A serious crisis is looming in the city as WebTribe Ltd’s contract ends on Sunday.
The company owns the online platform, JamboPay, which collects revenue for City Hall.
City Hall has yet to hire another firm, extend WebTribe’s contract, or put in place alternatives to avoid the risk of plunging into a financial crisis and disruption of services.
Reverting to the manual collection is the only alternative available, but, in the past, the system has been blamed for the loss of billions of shillings due to loopholes associated with it.
Already, WebTribe has written to Governor Mike Sonko's administration, informing it that it will deactivate its system on Sunday night.
“At that time, WebTribe (JamboPay) will be unable to carry out any transactions for the county. For the avoidance of doubt, all services, including but not limited to payments and enforcement, will be disabled after April 7, 2019,” a letter sent to the county reads.
It was addressed to acting county secretary Susan Kahiga, ICT executive Newton Munene and his Finance counterpart Winfred Kathangu.
Contacted for comment, however, ICT chief officer Halkano Waqo sought to allay fears of a looming crisis, saying they have engaged WebTribe to ensure the services are not interrupted.
"We've been engaging the company on a smooth transition. We are trying to disengage from them, but we want this to have a minimal interruption of services. In case of anything, the county will communicate to the public," he told the Star.
The deactivation of the automated system will leave services in a shambles. Millions of residents and investors have been relying on it to pay for county services at the comfort of their homes or offices. This will come to an end and stifle operations and collection of the much-needed revenue.
WebTribe was hired in April 2014 to automate revenue collection by then Governor Evans Kidero’s administration. It had a five-year contract. This was after it emerged that City Hall was losing billions of shilling to corrupt and unscrupulous revenue staff. Within the first year, collections doubled to Sh14 billion from Sh7 billion in the previous year.
Currently, all the more than 134 revenue streams have been automated. The firm collects between Sh80 million and Sh100 million a day. Last month, it collected Sh1.5 billion.
County assembly Finance, Budget and Appropriations committee has raised concerns that the county could plunge into a serious financial crisis if the company exits.
“The county is staring at a serious crisis. There is no alternative they have put in place and this is very dangerous for us,” chairman Robert Mbatia said.
His committee has summoned top finance officers today to explain the transition plans they have in place to ensure the revenue flow is not interrupted.
In the letter to the county, WebTribe said that despite writing to the county and holding several meetings to ensure a smooth transition, the county has been non-committal. The firm first wrote to City Hall in January, notifying it that it would require at least two weeks to fully migrate its systems.
“We appreciate that several meetings have been held to plan for the migration but are worried that we shall not have adequate time to complete the migration before the deadline, which is less than a week away,” the letter read.
WebTribe also complained about City Hall’s failure to inform the public about the impending end of the contract. No communication has been made to banks and telecommunication firms supporting the system and City Hall staff who interact with it.
WebTribe said in the letter that the county has not cleared the Sh60 billion debt owed to it for its services.