City MCAs warn against termination of JamboPay contract

Nairobi County Assembly ICT committee has warned the executive against termination of its contract with digital payment platform, JamboPay.

The committee chairman Osman Adow said the county government’s revenue collection will take a hit if the plan is effected, arguing that since the entrance of the electronic firm in 2014, yearly revenue collection at City Hall has received a major boost.

He said the revenue has risen from Sh7 billion to more than Sh10 billion every year after automating 85 revenue streams out of 136 such streams in the county.

NOT TRANSPARENT

He said JamboPay managed to collect Sh9.86 billion in the 2017/2018 financial year despite the prolonged electioneering period which affected the revenues of most county governments. “We have done investigations and concluded that the company has done nothing wrong. They are doing business in a professional way that does not hinder the county government in revenue collection,” said Mr Adow on Sunday.

This comes after Nairobi County acting Finance and Economic Planning executive Mr Charles Kerich intimated that the county was exploring other revenue collection options ahead of the expiry of JamboPay’s contract in April 2019.

Mr Kerich said there have been complaints against JamboPay; that sometimes its operations are not very transparent.

ACCESSIBILITY

He said that they could engage another private firm, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) or go it alone and follow Kwale County’s example, operating an internal system called Kwale Pay, which he hailed as very efficient and transparent.

“Running your own system is very advantageous but I do not want to be the one to make the whole decision. I will bring the team from ICT, Revenue, and Finance to look at the three possibilities but the important thing of running your own system is that it gives you visibility and access to all the information that you require,” he said at the time.

But Mr Adow differs with the acting Finance executive’s assertions saying that the termination of JamboPay’s contract would greatly affect the county government’s ability to collect revenue since they will be leaving a firm which has demonstrated its capacity to provide the service and is also doing the same across East Africa.

CAPACITY

“The county government currently has not arranged for hiring of another company and if the company’s contract is terminated then that would greatly affect the county government’s ability to collect revenue which is not a good thing for the county since we need the revenue for development,” he said.

The Eastleigh North MCA also defended the firm against accusations on transparency of its system, saying that JamboPay does not collect revenue, but only provides the platform for the collection and has given control of the system to the county.

“The county is fully able to access the system but they do not have the capacity to know what they are accessing. They have the information but maybe they do not have the expertise to know what the information is all about. So there is lack of capacity and not lack of information by the county,” said Mr Adow.

REMITTING

He also vindicated the firm against the County Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report accusing JamboPay over delays in remitting their collections outside the required 72 hours, saying that the firm had already rectified the error.

“Whatever happened then and what is happening now is different. Right now they transfer the money in the next day of business. Even PAC’s report indicated that the firm had corrected that,” he said.