Nairobi, Kenya: Eleven finance officers at City Hall were at the weekend suspended over poor revenue collection.
Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero ordered the suspension of his Chief Finance Officer Jimmy Kiamba and announced that the county was on the verge of privatising revenue collection to boost its coffers. In a move that caught many county employees by surprise, Kidero also ordered the suspension of ten cashiers and other senior staff in the Finance department after he made an impromptu visit to the county’s banking hall.
Kidero walked unannounced into the banking hall on the ground floor of the main City Hall building and found only one teller operating while the rest were unmanned.
Matatu operators, who had flocked City Hall to pay their monthly parking tickets, were growing impatient and had started to complain over delays. “I was informed of this mess by a good resident and I can see for myself. It is not acceptable when we all need money to move things,” said Kidero.
Matatu operators explained it was a nightmare to make payments to City Hall as the banking hall was always understaffed and whenever they made inquiries, they were arrested and locked up in the nearby county holding cells. Kidero immediately ordered the release of the arrested matatu touts unconditionally, with a promise that revenue collection will be decentralised to make it easier to make payments.
“How can you arrest somebody who has come to demand for better services and who has come to pay you your dues, which we desperately need so as to provide services to city residents?” Kidero asked.
He also revealed that the procurement of a private partner to boost in electronic revenue collection was at an advanced stage. “We are working on minimising the interface between county staff and hard cash, the procurement process of the private partner is almost through and we will announce the winner in due course. “City residents will no longer have to queue here the whole day but they will now be able to pay for services through services like M-Pesa and directly to our Co-operative Bank account,” Kidero said.
The governor has also promised more changes in the finance, audit and procurement departments in coming weeks.
Tuesday, 4 February 2014
Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero orders the release of matatu touts and suspends 11 county employees
Nairobi, Kenya: Eleven finance officers at City Hall were at the weekend suspended over poor revenue collection.
Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero ordered the suspension of his Chief Finance Officer Jimmy Kiamba and announced that the county was on the verge of privatising revenue collection to boost its coffers. In a move that caught many county employees by surprise, Kidero also ordered the suspension of ten cashiers and other senior staff in the Finance department after he made an impromptu visit to the county’s banking hall.
Kidero walked unannounced into the banking hall on the ground floor of the main City Hall building and found only one teller operating while the rest were unmanned.
Matatu operators, who had flocked City Hall to pay their monthly parking tickets, were growing impatient and had started to complain over delays. “I was informed of this mess by a good resident and I can see for myself. It is not acceptable when we all need money to move things,” said Kidero.
Matatu operators explained it was a nightmare to make payments to City Hall as the banking hall was always understaffed and whenever they made inquiries, they were arrested and locked up in the nearby county holding cells. Kidero immediately ordered the release of the arrested matatu touts unconditionally, with a promise that revenue collection will be decentralised to make it easier to make payments.
“How can you arrest somebody who has come to demand for better services and who has come to pay you your dues, which we desperately need so as to provide services to city residents?” Kidero asked.
He also revealed that the procurement of a private partner to boost in electronic revenue collection was at an advanced stage. “We are working on minimising the interface between county staff and hard cash, the procurement process of the private partner is almost through and we will announce the winner in due course. “City residents will no longer have to queue here the whole day but they will now be able to pay for services through services like M-Pesa and directly to our Co-operative Bank account,” Kidero said.
The governor has also promised more changes in the finance, audit and procurement departments in coming weeks.
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