Nairobi News

Hustle

City firemen on the spot over financial impropriety


The Nairobi Fire Department was on Friday put to task over the issuance of fire inspection certificate invoices without corresponding receipts and overcharging residents.

Nairobi County Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee wanted to find out why officials from the department were not consolidating the receipts, saying it pointed to a massive loophole in the process.

“This can mean that you are either overcharging residents or the county government is losing a lot of money through undercharging,” said the committee chairman Robert Mbatia.

The vice chairman, Mr Patrick Karani, said there was a serious gap in the whole system, adding that most of the invoices did not match with receipts or bank statements.

The committee further revealed that the department was still using old rates while charging for the fire inspection certificate despite new levies having been introduced.

It emerged that Nairobi residents are still being charged Sh4,500 for the certificate despite the charges dropping to Sh1,000.

Mr Mbatia said they reduced the rates to promote compliance among business people with the aim of boosting revenue collection.