Finance Committee Takes Treasury Officials To Task Over E-Citizen Management Inefficiencies And Delayed Payment Of Pensioners
The Principal Secretary, National Treasury Chris Kiptoo with his team
By PSCU
Worth Noting:
- “ I want to direct that the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary be invited to shed light on this matter next week”, he directed .
- The Committee Members who were not convinced by the response given by Mr. Bernard Ndung’u,the Accountant General on the matter, sought to know the measures the National Treasury had put in place to cushion the country from pilferage of the revenue generated through the platform now that they were not exclusively managing the revenue.
- “Now that you are not in charge of the platform’s operations, how do you ensure that there is no pilferage of these funds? “, Okuome Adipo from Karachonyo and John Ariko of Turkana South sought to know.
A House Committee has directed the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury John Mbadi and the State Department’s Principal Secretary, Dr. Chris Kiptoo to provide details on the operations and management of the E-Citizen platform in relation to revenue collection.
Speaking when they met with Mr. Kiptoo to deliberate on the Budget Policy Statement for the 2025/2026 Budget, the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning Kuria Kimani directed that the two top officials to appear before the Committee next week.
The two are expected to explain to the Committee the circumstances under which the National Treasury which is under the ministry charged with revenue collection, ceded its mandate to the State Department of Immigration and Citizen Services.
The directive follows concerns that in view of the E-Platform risks, the government lacks full control over the system, relying on the contracted vender for 18 critical functions, increasing risks of revenue leakage, security breaches, and operational disruptions.
“The responsibility of collecting revenue is domiciled at the National Treasury. What creteria was used to have this role domiciled at the State Department of Immigration and Citizen Services,” Kimani asked.
“ I want to direct that the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary be invited to shed light on this matter next week”, he directed .
The Committee Members who were not convinced by the response given by Mr. Bernard Ndung’u,the Accountant General on the matter, sought to know the measures the National Treasury had put in place to cushion the country from pilferage of the revenue generated through the platform now that they were not exclusively managing the revenue.
“Now that you are not in charge of the platform’s operations, how do you ensure that there is no pilferage of these funds? “, Okuome Adipo from Karachonyo and John Ariko of Turkana South sought to know.
Mr. Ndungu had told the Committee that there is an existing agreement between the two entities on the operations of the platform, adding that the signatories for the revenue generated are from the National Treasury. He observed that the State Department of Immigration was just a facilitator to enhance service delivery.
“This is shared responsibility between National Treasury and the Immigration Department, but the National Treasury has control of the funds collected”, Mr. Ndung’u explained.
The Principal Secretary who appeared briefly before the Committee excused himself to attend to another pressing matter, designating Mr. Ndung’u to take charge of the deliberations.
At the same time, the Committee has directed the Cabinet Secretary to apprise the Committee on the punitive actions the ministry was planning to take against the Accounting Officers who had failed to remit statutory deductions, and to effect the payment of pension to retirees.
While presenting records from the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA), Kimani took the National Treasury officials to task over defaulted payments to retirees amounting to KSh54 billion.
In response, the National Treasury Officials told the Committee that there were plans to immigrate from the current manual payment system of pensions to an automated one by the month of May .
Committee Members noted that there was a need for the National Treasury to institute legal actions against all accounting officers who have defaulted on remittance of statutory deductions to enhance compliance.
Meanwhile, the Committee has also asked the National Treasury to clarify on the budget projections for the 2025/2026 Financial Year, after it emerged that there is a discrepancy of KSh110 billion in the figures contained tabled Budget Policy Statements.
“The Ministry has provided two different figures in the Budget Policy Statement tabled in the House last week. We need to know which figure is the correct one. Is it the KSh 4.226 Trillion or the other figure of KSh4.336 Trillion,” Kimani asked.
In response, Mr. Ndung’u told the Committee that the Ministry would provide an amendment to the BPS document before the completion of the consideration of the document by the House.
The Committee also directed that the Ministry reconsiders the proposed allocation of the National Government- Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) which has been slashed by 50 % from the current allocation of KSh70 Billion to 31 Billion in the next Financial year.
Other issues that were deliberated during the meeting relate to the unrealistic revenue growth projections amid persistent shortfalls, expenditure carry overs and unsustainable budget planning, inflation decline against the high cost of living and interest rates as well as lack of transparency in the zero-based budgeting approach.
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