The Nairobi City County has been losing millions of shillings in terms of revenue due to the failure of the systems for revenue collection, it has now been revealed.
The shocking revelation was made by the county team in charge of Urban Planning and Parking fee revenue appearing before the ad hoc committee on Revenue Collection during public participation.
It was revealed that any property holders fail to remit their payment anytime the system fails while those who pay reverse the money back.
Motorists have been accused of being the most notorious for reversing the money.
“Now and then we experience some downfalls in the systems and parking is the greatest casualty of this. Some of the parking fees are supposed to be collected immediately, especially around the banks and malls but when the system is down, we lose a lot of money because the motorists park for a few minutes or say a short period and leave after transactions. The vehicles can hence not be clamped because you cannot see what is going on in the system.” Lucy Kanini, the officer in charge of loading zones explained.
Further, the lack of title deeds for land and buildings has also contributed to the county not collecting revenue from the property owners through the Nairobi Pay System.
The committee was told that out of nearly 180,000 property that is in the new system, only approximately 177,000 remit revenue.
The committee chair, Peter Imwatok reiterated that the number of developments going on around the city, especially on the Eastern side is a lot whereas the executive team on urban planning said it is only the Western part and parts of Kilimani that comply by a good percentage by paying revenue for their properties.
Also, the system has been at fault for showing invoices with double the amount paid by City dwellers while other payments do not even reflect in the system.
“If a person pays for example Sh10, 000, we have seen the system generate an invoice of double the paid amount. Others even do not appear in the system.” Mutua said.
Nairobians who have remitted the land rates and their payment has not been reflected in the system have been told to wait until January for a manual update.
“We have no access to the bank statement as we only reconcile with the dashboard. We have requested those whose pay has not been reflected to wait until January when we will do a manual update.” He added.
From yesterday’s hearing, it was established that the system needs to be thoroughly improved for the county to avoid losing more revenue.
Under Standing Order 211, the County Assembly established an ad hoc committee to inquire into the revenue collection system and administration by Nairobi City county for the period 2013 – 2023.
The inquiry aims to identify areas of leakages, map the revenue sources, and determine a fair estimate of the County’s internal revenue potential.
The general public has been submitting their memoranda on any matter related to revenue streams as the committee proceeds with the public hearing today.
