There is an ongoing dispute over the government's financial management of the eCitizen platform, following the Principal Secretary for National Treasury, Chris Kiptoo, refuting a report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, which claimed that over Ksh9.6 billion was missing at least since 2023.
The Auditor General's March 2025 audit report on the platform's operations in the financial year ending June 30, 2024 pointed out over Ksh9.6 billion in questionable transactions and poor oversight involving financial service providers and government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, August 7, the PS revealed that Gathungu's findings were an inaccurate distortion of the facts. He maintained that no money had been lost in the system.
“I want to assure Kenyans that from 2023 onwards, no money has been lost, to my knowledge,” the PS stated.
According to Kiptoo, the government had put in place enough legal and fiscal measures to prevent loss of public funds through the system. The PS explained that accounting systems, after the contractual agreements with the system vendor, sealed all the graft loopholes.
“For many years, almost 10 years, there was no contractual obligations between the vendor and the government, so we have tried to regularise the law,” he noted.
In explaining the perceived mishaps highlighted by the AG, Kiptoo admitted that there was a failure by relevant authorities to implement the prorated service charge, which had not been in place, instead employing a flat rate charge of Ksh50 convenience fee, which led to an overcollection of Ksh1.8 billion from the taxpayers.
The PS also dismissed ownership claims, maintaining that the government fully owns the system and has all the access passwords.
“The passwords and administrative rights for eCitizen are managed by the Directorate of Citizen Services under the Ministry of Interior,” said Kiptoo.
While hailing the platform, Kiptoo claimed that it remained one of Kenya's most transparent and traceable revenue collection tools in government.
The PS faulted Gathungu for failing to observe due process, claiming that the final audit report was tabled in Parliament without allowing the National Treasury to review or respond to the findings.
“But, we are subject to audit, and I wish we had the chance to discuss this audit report with the auditor because there are things here that we also feel we could have provided. This is the disadvantage of a special audit,'' the PS continued. By , Kenyans.co.ke
