Government summons 17 agency CEOs over eCitizen money losses
A day after Immigration PS Julius Bitok issued a warning to the Chief Executives of State Departments over the diversion of revenue from eCitizen services, the government has gone a step further and summoned the heads of 17 state departments.
According to Mercy Wanjau, the Secretary to the Cabinet, the managers are expected to appear next week to explain their failure to comply with a presidential directive on the payment of services through eCitizen.
Ms Wanjau who chairs the eCitizen Implementation Committee and the convener of Tuesday’s meeting said that the Principal Secretaries for State Departments under which the agencies fall, Chief Executive Officers and Board chairpersons will attend the meeting.
She stated that the summons were in line with a comply-or-explain letter that she had issued on August 4, 2023.
“Following conversations that have happened, these state corporations have been invited for a meeting on Tuesday at 9 am and this meeting is to be attended by the CEO, the Chair of the board, and the PS who is the accounting officer,” Ms Wanjau said.
The summoned officers are from the Kenya Revenue Authority, Kenya Power, Kenya National Examination Council, the National Hospital Insurance Fund, the Higher Education Loans Board, the Hustler Fund, and the Agricultural Finance Corporation.
The rest are Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya Bureau of Standards, Kenya Ports Authority, National Cereals and Produce Board, National Aids Control Council, the Mathari Referral and Teaching Hospital, Kenya Railways Corporation, Kenya Ferry Services Limited, Kenya National Trading Corporation and the Kenya School of Government.
Also, Ms Wanajua stated that although the agencies had initially been granted temporary exemption from closing their paybills and channeling all payments to 222222 on account of their unique services, they were still bound by the December 31st deadline.
“The exemption was on the premise that indeed you need time but you still must remain on the pathway for digitisation without fracturing your services.”
The directive to use the single Paybill for eCitizen services was issued by President William Ruto on June 30th during the unveiling of government services on eCitizen.
However, the Secretary to the Cabinet has accused some of the agencies of frustrating revenue collection and transparency that were intended by the directive by maintaining separate bank accounts and advertising unofficial payment channels.
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