Tana River Senator Danson Mungatana has dismissed legislators criticising the government’s move to consolidate payment of all its services on eCitizen, the online portal for all State services, into one PayBill number.
The order, given by President William Ruto last year, has seen the government order that school fee payment be made on eCitizen, although the directive has since been blocked by the High Court.
It has also sparked criticism over the service charges and convenience fee Kenyans have to pay in addition to the set charges when seeking State services on the portal.
Mungatana on Thursday, however, challenged fellow legislators criticising the system, which he describes as a game changer, to present solutions that would make it better instead of complaining.
“eCitizen might have its issues; I know Senator Stewart Madzayo has moved to court to question the charging of an extra amount when making payments. It might not be perfect,” Mungatana said in a panel discussion on Citizen TV’s Daybreak program.
“But my colleagues (legislators criticising eCitizen) have the public accounts and investment. Nothing stops them from getting out of the lamentations committee and going into solutions. I am also interested in perfecting this system because it will be a game changer.”
Madzayo has moved to court to stop Pesaflow, the private company through which eCitizen payments are made, from collecting convenience fees.
In his petition, the Kilifi senator says Pesaflow’s role and ownership are unknown and terms the convenience fee an unfair and unconstitutional burden to taxpayers.
Mungatana defended the system as the ideal solution to leakages in government funds, claiming that after the introduction of the consolidated Paybill number, the government has saved millions of shillings daily.
“There were agencies before eCitizen that collected revenue and would deposit something like Ksh.5 million or Ksh.3 million every day, then the president introduced one PayBill number and there was resistance. The procurement people were told to obey or resign,” the senator said.
“Suddenly, someone paying Ksh.5 million was paying Ksh.25 million… daily collections increased. There was a time when people laughed at former President Uhuru Kenyatta when he said we are losing about Ksh.2 billion every day, but when you think about it, the leakages are massive.”
Pressed further on the increased collections, the MP however declined to divulge further details, only saying “It is internal information.”
