• Nairobi City County Shadrack Nyamai stated that KRA opened the accounts during their tenure as the revenue collectors of the county and was never deactivated.
• The Peter Imwatok-led committee was also told that two other KRA officials are the signatories of the county revenue accounts from the KRA side.
Image: Handout
Nairobi City County still uses a bank account opened by the Kenya Revenue Authority with KRA officers still as part of the signatories of the account.
This was said during the public hearing when the chief cashier of Nairobi City County Shadrack Nyamai presented his submissions to the Ad hoc committee on revenue collection.
Nyamai stated that the national government collector opened the accounts during Nairobi Metropolitan Services' tenure as the revenue collector of the county and was never deactivated.
He added the accounts are still currently being used despite the transfer of deeds.
He added that he has never received a reconciliation of closing the accounts.
“The county government of Nairobi still uses KRA accounts and as the cashier of the county, I confirm that. We are still using the accounts under the KRA initials as they were never closed despite the deed of transfer from NMS to the county government,” Nyamai claimed.
“The initials are KRA Nairobi Revenue Collection Account under the cooperative bank and also for equity bank. Even when a customer goes to pay, that is the narration from the bank,” he added.
The Chief Cashier also said that personnel from KRA still hold signatory roles for the account.
Nyamai added that the Chief Officer in charge of Finance, Asha Abdi, and the Head of Treasury, Martha Wambugu, have been introduced as additional signatories to the same accounts.
“KRA officers are the ones who opened the accounts and even up to date they are still the signatories. Our Chief Officer and head of county treasury were also introduced as the signatories of the accounts though still, the mandatory signatories are the KRA officials,” he said.
The Peter Imwatok-led committee was also told that two other KRA officials are the signatories of the county revenue accounts from the KRA side.
However, Nyamai clarified that the two do not transact anything on behalf of the county saying that the accounts are only for collection.
He further highlighted that two KRA officials, one in a top position at the authority were forwarded to the county even after the end of the defunct NMS tenure.
Despite Nyamai's earlier assertion that the county maintained only two accounts for revenue collection, he had on September said that an account at the National Bank of Kenya was activated and is currently operational.
Johnson Akongo, Licencing Director Nairobi County told the committee that head of treasury Martha Wambugu and Chief Officer Asha Abdi are the account's signatories.
This he said was contrary to the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act which stipulates that for a revenue account to be opened, approval has to be done by the county assembly with a letter from the Chief Officer of Finance and Economic Planning which he said was not done.
“Even the signatories need to be approved by the assembly," Akongo explained.
Nyamai stated that since September of last year, when the account was reactivated, the county has recently requested complete access to the account.
The aim was to review statements and track the remittance of revenue.
"The reasons and purpose behind the reactivation of the account remain unclear. The accounts were supposed to be closed, but they were not closed," Nyamai said.
The officer also told the committee that another account at the National Bank, which was opened during the same period, has not been closed. However, it is currently not in use for revenue collection.
The two-day public hearing by the Ad hoc committee was closed on Thursday after the committee got views from the public and representatives of the various sectors of the county.
The Imwatok-led committee is expected to meet the Kenya Revenue Authority team on Friday to shed more light on revenue matters.