• Debt Collection Unit has only one operating vehicle.
•County unable to meet collection targets since 2013.
Defaulters owe the Nairobi county government Sh300 billion.
The assembly Finance and Budget and Appropriation committee on Wednesday was told that City Hall has only collected Sh627.5 million from defaulters in the current financial year.
The target was Sh3.1 billion.
The debt includes rates, single business permits, firefighting fees, advertising fees, medicals supplies and fees for loading zones and wayleaves.
Debt Collection Unit head James Lempaka cited internal problems for failure to collect.
The national government is the biggest deadbeat, owing Sh120 billion by the end of March.
Lempaka said retirees impersonate Collection Unit officers, impostors pose as officers and some subcounty administrators refuse to give lists of debtors.
"The main is lack of tools. The unit lacks even one vehicle to go out in the field," he told the committee.
The DCU has 85 members tasked with collecting from individuals, parastatals, corporate firms and the national government.
It emerged there is a "disconnect" among sectors at City Hall, some of them unwilling to give the DCU with requisite debtors' data from revenue streams.
Kayole South MCA Fredrick Okeyo questioned how City Hall could afford to have a disconnect between sectors about revenue collection when the county was struggling to meet targets.
He also asked why certain sectors were not willing to give a list of defaulters to the DCU for enforcement.
"We have to find a way to compel sectors to work together. Already, we have enough problems facing the revenue collection and we can't have sectors being disconnected," Okeyo said.
Since 2013, the county government has only collected Sh12.9 billion in rates alone, against a target of Sh21 billion for that period.
The county has been struggling to meet its targets from land rates.
In the current financial year, 2,358 defaulters have been arrested and the county collected Sh19.6 million from them.
Out of the Sh264 million targeted from Single Business Permits, the DCU only collected Sh15.9 million. It only collected Sh40.1 million from adverts against the goal of Sh247.5 million.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)