I also wonder what mischief the directive intended to cure? They might as well have directed the closure of all bank accounts and reverted to one single account. There's obviously a transparency /visibility issue.

We also have an issue of vendor lock-in? I think with interoperability we can now make payments ax services but what's the fuss with only the mpesa account? Does it mean govt can't have other paybills e.g. Airtel/equity/telkom? Shouldn't we have all options? What happens when mpesa is down? 

And like you say Ali, that convenience fee? Who receives it, considering we are already paying for a service? This paybill has been litigated in court, I dunno whether the case that resulted in the freezing of the old paybill 206206 accounts was resolved/concluded. 


Lastly, from an accounting perspective and how paybills work, will they be able to differentiate what monies were collected by a specific MDA? This all in one port could give rise new challenges. 

Victor

On Tue, 22 Aug 2023, 07:01 Ali Hussein via KICTANet, <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Ohaga

Your points are valid. There definitely should have been a better engagement process by the National Government. So on this point, I withdraw my nuisance remark. 😅

When I say project management and implementation issues, any Project Manager worth their salt would tell you that one of the major reasons projects fail is because we fail in communication. Hence why I'm focusing more on the implementation. The idea is a great one. What the government should do more is stakeholder management. 

Ali Hussein

Tel: +254 713 601113
Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo
LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim



   

On Tue, 22 Aug 2023, 1:43 pm Ohaga JB, <durojb@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Ali.

Thank you for the clarification that the issue affecting county revenue can be sorted to go to them directly. That is helpful to know. However, did the counties ask for this solution? Don't counties have the right to determine how they collect their revenue? Just because something appears good (open to interpretation by the way) does not mean that you dictate its implementation. There are processes for getting the same to be adopted. There's a question to be answered here about the separation of powers in regards to revenue collection even as you work through the project management/execution issues.

Regards,
JB.

On Tue, Aug 22, 2023 at 1:30 PM Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:
Ohaga

Question  - Are we sure that the one payment gateway directive also affects counties? And even so, there are ways that this can be made to go directly to the respective counties. Fintech solves this issue. It's not rocket science. 

I still contend that this is an execution and project management issue.  Nowhere in our constitution is this prohibited. However, constitutional lawyers can chime in here. 

Regards

Ali Hussein

Fintech | Digital Transformation                                


Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

LinkedIn: Ali's Profile










Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with.


On Tue, Aug 22, 2023 at 1:20 PM Ohaga JB <durojb@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Ali.

I, however, beg to differ that this should be designated as a nuisance case. Public participation ought to have been conducted for such a far reaching decision to be undertaken. Senior Mwenda has asked whether public participation is sought when public entities open/close accounts, the answer here is an emphatic no, because those decisions are often limited to the administrative elements of those specific institutions, they do not affect the entire government revenue collection system in a manner that the President's directive will.

One question that I've been thinking about that relates to this is, when counties collect their own revenue, they usually retain that for usage within the counties themselves. So what happens when the national govt decides that revenue will be collected in one pot? What happens to the county specific revenue? What will be the mechanism for accessing this money by the counties? Remember, county share of the revenue is often 3 to 4 months late, and what helps counties run in the interim is the own revenue that they collect. But if this is not the position in the President's directive, then this needs to be clarified, which is why that court case is timely. There are way too many unanswered questions up in the air.

The directive might be well intentioned and might actually be good, per Ali's point, but it needs to be backed by law and citizens need to have a say on how their revenue is collected and managed. As Thatcher loved to remind us, there is no such thing as public money, there is only taxpayers' money and tax payers should have a say on mechanisms for collection and management of their money if they're expected to keep paying it.

Regards,
JB.

On Tue, Aug 22, 2023 at 12:50 PM Ali Hussein via KICTANet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
That is a great point, @Mwendwa Kivuva. I actually think that this is a nuisance case. However, having said that here are my thoughts about this issue of the Government Payment Gateway:-

1. It's a great initiative and one we should support. 
2. Unfortunately, whoever is implementing this is making shoddy work out of it! This will eventually deprive the government of revenue or at the very least delay revenue and create unnecessary opportunities for 'alternative' payment models. 
3. This is a Project Management and execution issue, not a court case issue! 

Regards

Ali Hussein

Fintech | Digital Transformation                                


Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

LinkedIn: Ali's Profile










Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with.


On Mon, Aug 21, 2023 at 8:21 PM Mwendwa Kivuva via KICTANet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
For the sake of debate, is there public participation when a public entity is opening or closing a bank account? What level of autonomy do state agencies have in running their operations?

On Mon, 21 Aug 2023 at 16:30, James Mbugua via KICTANet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Listers,

Two petitioners have gone to Court seeking to reverse President Ruto's directive for all government services to be paid for through  a single Paybill number.

The petitioners want it quashed for want of kegality/Constitutionality because:

- That the directive is not grounded in the PFM or any other Statutory Act.
- That there was no public participation regarding the same
- That it does not distinguish, as it should  between County and National government services.

We're the Court cases regarding the eCitizen payments system resolved by the way?

Regards,

JG

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