Economy

City Hall seeks e-revenue platform, JamboPay exits

muchemi

JamboPay chief executive Danson Muchemi during a past interview. FILE PHOTO | NMG

City Hall is set to change its electronic revenue platform as it moves to retire the Local Authority Integrated Financial Operations Management System (Laifoms) ahead of expiry of the JamboPay deal.

Through tender documents published on Friday, the county sought a private firm to install an integrated city revenue management system (ICMS) to replace the Laifoms that has been in use alongside the JamboPay e-payment platform.

The move comes two months before the expiry of City Hall’s contract with Web Tribe Limited, owners of the JamboPay e-payment.

“We have been using Laifoms but it has many gaps that cannot fit within the best practices of technology at the moment,” City Hall’s ICT director George Ombua said last week.

The move to change the e-revenue platform comes even as the county strives to unravel discrepancy between the revenue collected through Laifoms and the JamboPay system.

City Hall, for instance, reported a collection of Sh10.1 billion for 2017/18 while JamboPay reported Sh9.86 billion, raising questions whether the Sh240 million is all City Hall collected outside the electronic billing system.

JamboPay handles 85 revenue streams while City Hall directly controls 51 collection points through Laifoms.

The county’s deal with Web Tribe has been clouded in controversy after Governor Mike Sonko defied a bid by ward representatives last May to have its services terminated for breach of contract.

Web Tribe withheld Sh2.82 million for 57 days in January 2015 and Sh51 million last February for six days raising fears that the funds may have been used for un-authorised trading.

The contract requires Web Tribe to settle all City Hall’s transactions within 12 hours for cash transactions and three days for electronic payments.

The contract to automate the city’s revenue collection was signed in April 2014 in efforts to curb the loss of millions of shillings through collusion by corrupt City Hall officials and pilferage.

City Hall has failed to hit its revenue targets since 2013 despite automating collections.

Nairobi collected Sh8.8 billion in the year to last June, a 10 per cent fall from the Sh9.8 billion generated in a similar period to June 2017.