Nairobi News

NewsWhat's Hot

MPs want Kidero probed for corruption over JamboPay


MPs from Nairobi are on Tuesday morning scheduled to formally petition the anti-corruption commission to investigate alleged financial irregularities in Governor Evans Kidero’s government.

Angered by a report by Auditor-General Edward Ouko tabled in the Nairobi County Assembly in July, the MPs will be asking the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to focus on the electronic revenue collection system.

“The issues is whether the governor has the mandate to sign an agreement and how it was procured, which even the Auditor-General has questioned,” said Makadara MP Benson Mutura.

He said the agreement between the county government and Web Tribe Ltd, which collects revenue through JamboPay, is questionable because of a confidentiality clause.

TRANSPARENCY

The clause states that “the parties undertake to keep strictly confidential all information and data exchanged between them (including those exchanged in the pre-contractual stage) as well as the terms of this contract for the contracting period”.

Mr Mutura argued that this undermines the transparency expected in the management of public affairs.

“Any agreement that the county has entered into should be made known to the public. There should be no secrets in the way the county is run,” he added.

Dr Kidero has accused Mr Mutura and his colleagues of politicising revenue collection at City Hall and said the e-payment contract was awarded fairly.

“Since its inception, the electronic payment has led to enhanced revenue collection through increased accountability and transparency in tracking of county revenue flows, resulting in reduction of corruption and loss of huge funds experienced through handling of cash,” said the governor.

Mr Mutura said Dr Kidero’s claims were not true and should be supported by evidence.

JAMBOPAY

“Last year, they increased parking fees, land rates and licence fees by more than 100 per cent and so the year’s revenue should have doubled. We are demanding that the governor shows how much revenue was collected,” he added.

The county awarded Web Tribe Ltd a Sh23.2 million contract to supply, implement and maintain the electronic system, with the firm keeping 4.5 per cent of all revenue collected through JamboPay.

During bidding, Web Tribe had indicated that it was teamed up with Kenya Commercial Bank, but the bank dismissed the statement. Bidders who were found not to have teamed up with a financial institution were disqualified.

The auditors found that the two other companies that qualified to the financial evaluation Virtual Mobile and Craftsilcon had bid to charge 2.5 per cent of the transactions as the fee, the same rate the Kenya Revenue Authority would have charged had it been given the job.

From this, the auditor-general concluded that over the five years the contract will be in place, Nairobi County will lose Sh767.4 million compared with what would have happened had the other lower bidders been given the job.