MPs petition EACC to probe Kidero over Jambopay deal

Nairobi MPs are this morning scheduled to formally petition the EACC to investigate financial irregularities in the county government in a report by the Auditor-General.

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

“The issue 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 government and Webtribe Ltd, who run the revenue collection on the system known as Jambopay, was questionable because of a confidentiality clause.

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.”

READ: Kidero dismisses calls to nullify Jambopay deal

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 politicizing revenue collection at City Hall and said that the e-payment contract was awarded competitively.

Enhanced revenue collection

"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 funds experienced through handling of cash,” said the governor.

“The overall county revenue collection went up by approximately Sh1.44 billion in the financial year 2014/2015, contrary to the allegations by some MPs that the e-payment deal has led to reduced revenue collection and that it was meant to steal from the city residents."

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

“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 contract to supply, implement and maintain the electronic system by Webtribe Ltd was awarded at Sh23.2 million, with the firm then keeping 4.5 per cent of all revenue collected through JamboPay.

During bidding, Webtribe had indicated that they teamed up with the Kenya Commercial Bank but the bank refuted 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 Craftsilicon- 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 to what would have happened had the other lower bidders been given the job.