Enact parking laws to end revenue loss, say MCAs

The county government of Nairobi has been uregd to develop laws on parking to avoid loss of revenue.

The Select Committee on Public Accounts acted on the consideration of the Auditor General's report on the county's financial statements for 2016-17. 

During the year under review, PAC led by chairman Wilfred Odalo noted that a lot of revenue was lost due to lack of laws on parking and irregular clamping. 

Parking services earned the county Sh1.97 billion against the targeted Sh3.54 billion that year. 

Auditor General Edward Ouko had questioned the county’s failure to account for Sh238 million raised from parking fees. 

To avoid further loss of revenue, PAC recommended the executive to come up with laws for introduction in the county within three months after the adoption of their report.

It was tabled and adopted by the county assembly on July 24. 

Unpaid for penalties

During the same year, examination of enforcement of revenue revealed that the system was releasing clamped vehicles without payment of the approved penalty. 

Records show the vehicles clamped were 25,700. Vehicles unclamped without valid reason were 15,388 (60 per cent of the total clamped vehicles), consequently costing the county revenue. 

It was noted that control over issuance and accountability of the clamps is weak and prone to manipulation.  

“For instance, there is no system to monitor the activities of field officers on the clamped vehicles to ensure those unclamped have paid,” the report reads.

Submissions from the executive revealed that the county has a querying option used by the enforcement department to ensure all vehicles not paid for are clamped.

Government vehicles with work tickets, staff vehicles and those with VIP stickers were erroneously clamped. 

The executive also said it had introduced a specific team to analyse and verify clamped and unpaid for vehicles and are thus able to detect areas of rampant non-compliance and non-payment of penalties. 

The committee observed that the county lost and continues to lose revenue due to inaction by parking attendants who fail to enforce revenue collection.

In its report, the committee recommended that the officer in charge of parking must take necessary steps to ensure any clamped vehicle pays the requisite penalties prior to their release and proper documentation kept. 

The county government should also immediately procure an automated system to monitor the clamping and unclamping of vehicles, the report recommends.  

Edited by R.Wamochie 

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