A Senate committee could be forced to scrutinise how the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) collects and accounts for its commercial income after Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei questioned the use of a private firm outside the government’s eCitizen platform.
Cherargei wants the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Budget to establish how the unnamed company was selected, the authority under which it operates and the terms governing the collection and sharing of money raised by KICC.
The senator is particularly seeking answers on revenue from the centre’s parking facilities, Tower Viewing services, events and other commercial activities.
He wants the committee to establish whether KICC followed the required procurement procedures before entering into the arrangement and whether the necessary government approvals were obtained.
“I want to ask the committee be provided access to the contract and other supporting documents governing the engagement to establish the terms under which the private firm is collecting and sharing revenue with KICC,” said Cherarkey.
Cherargei has also questioned why the money collected through the private arrangement is not being channelled through eCitizen, the government’s central platform for public payments.
He wants the committee to find out whether the National Treasury gave KICC permission to maintain a separate revenue-collection system and, if so, the reasons for the approval.
The senator is seeking disclosure of the identity of the private company, its agreement with KICC and the terms under which it receives and transfers the money.
He also wants details of the payment platforms and bank accounts being used in the process, as well as the measures put in place to protect public funds from under-reporting, unauthorised retention, diversion or loss.
As part of the inquiry, Cherargei wants KICC to provide a five-year record of income generated from parking, Tower Viewing services, events and other commercial activities.
The figures should be broken down according to the different sources and matched against revenue recorded through eCitizen.
According to the senator, such a comparison would help establish whether the amounts collected through the private arrangement correspond with the money officially recorded and accounted for by the government.
The committee is also expected to establish whether KICC has experienced any gaps between collections and reported revenue, delayed remittances, losses or other financial irregularities since the arrangement was introduced.
Cherargei wants any unremitted or lost funds identified and quantified, together with details of the action taken to address the problem and recover any money found to be outstanding.
The senator is also pushing for a wider review of government revenue collection systems beyond KICC.
He wants the National Treasury to disclose which other government institutions are still receiving public money through channels outside eCitizen.
Cherargei is further seeking information on the measures Treasury has put in place to ensure that public revenue is collected through approved systems, properly recorded and reconciled.
The inquiry would therefore seek to establish whether KICC’s arrangement with the private company has the required legal and financial approvals and whether all revenue generated by the centre is reaching the government’s official records.