- In a statement, however, the county clarified that they were aware of revenue collection and its management.
- Acting County Secretary Patrick Analo made it clear that the county uses a revenue collection portal called the Nairobi Revenue Services (NRS).
Image: MAUREEN KINYANJUI
All is set for the probing of Nairobi County revenue collection and allocation.
This is after the Nairobi County Assembly last week approved a motion to create an ad-hoc committee tasked with investigating the county’s revenue collection systems.
The MCAs had earlier raised concerns that despite Nairobi county boasting of several revenue streams, there has been alleged gross underperformance as regards the county's annual revenue collection vis a vis its annual county expenditure.
Nairobi County Assembly had expressed concerns over the transparency and accountability of the city's revenue collection system.
In a statement, however, the county clarified that they were aware of revenue collection and its management.
Acting County Secretary Patrick Analo made it clear that the county uses a revenue collection portal called the Nairobi Revenue Services (NRS).
Before then, City Hall was collecting revenue through the National Bank.
"NRS is an Integrated County Revenue Management System (ICRMS) conceptualized by the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC), which is established under the Intergovernmental Relations Act (IGRA) 2012," he said.
The system was developed and deployed by a multiagency team of the National Government without the involvement of any private vendor.
This means that the system is wholly owned by the Government of Kenya
"NRS is the only integrated Management System for service delivery and revenue collection in Nairobi City County which was executed in a memorandum of agreement by the county government, Nairobi Metropolitan Services and KRA," Analo added.
City Hall also clarified that all licence expenses including the hosting costs are catered for by the National Government through the Ministry of ICT.
However, a motion moved by Majority leader Peter Imwatok suggested the formation of an emergency committee consisting of 13 MCAs to delve into the intricacies of the revenue collection system.
“The committee will represent both majority and minority factions in Parliament,” he said.
The 13-member Ad Hoc Committee members to investigate the County revenue collection system are Peter Imwatok, Paul Kados Kiguathi, Anthony Kiragu, Jane Musangi, Wilfred Odallo, Cyrus Matara and Nicholas Juma.
Others are, Fatiya Abdullahi, Fredrick Njogu, Carrington Heho, Joyce Muthoni, Daina Katile and James Karis.
At the centre of the intended probe by the MCAs is the Nairobi Revenue System, which is the portal used by Nairobi to collect its revenue.
The system was executed in a memorandum of agreement by the Nairobi county government, the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services and Kenya Railway Service.
It was established when KRA was the collecting agent for the county's revenue.
As a result, the committee will be required to ask KRA to shed light on whether the authority developed the revenue collection system as purported.
“The essence of this motion is to bring the sense to our revenue system of the county, the issue of revenue in this county is wanting,” Imwatok said while moving the motion.
The assembly's Energy and ICT Committees had claimed that one year down the line, the administration doesn't have access to the system collecting revenue on behalf of the county.
The claims come at a time when the EACC listed Nairobi as one of the counties with serious accountability deficits in their revenue management systems.
"It is instructive that we found a complete lack of transparency in the entire manner in which the revenue is being collected, reported and accounted for," said Robert Alai, Kileleshwa MCA.
The Energy and ICT Committees in a statement also noted with concern the opacity of Nairobi County’s revenue collection.
They listed seven alleged irregularities in the management of the Nairobi Revenue System.
City Hall, however, said they only cater for operations costs such as SMS costs, internet costs and end-user devices.
In terms of where the server is located, the Sakaja-led administration revealed that they are in several National Government Data Centres.
Revealing the efficiency of NRS, City Hall revealed that the system has implemented workflows that cut across various sectors within the county with revenue assessment being the last stage in the workflows.
These include applications, approvals, inspections and transfers that are all carried out in the system e.g. for Building Approvals, Subdivisions/Amalgamations, Loading Zones allocations, County Housing Management, Health and Fire Certificates, and Advertising among others.
City Hall also noted that all funds end up in two county-owned bank accounts.
"It is instructive to note that all money collected by Nairobi City County is banked directly into the county’s two bank accounts, one held at Cooperative Bank and the other at Equity Bank," Analo stated.
In addition to that, the county stated that daily revenue collections are sent to the CountyRevenue Fund (CRF) account held in the Central Bank of Kenya(CBK).