Tuesday, August 5, 2025 - Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu has raised red flags over transparency and accountability gaps within the Government’s eCitizen digital payment platform.
In her March 2025 audit covering the financial year ending
June 30th, 2024, Gathungu highlighted over Ksh 9.6 billion in
questionable transactions.
A major concern is the lack of Service Level Agreements
(SLAs) between the National Treasury and financial service providers
facilitating payments via eCitizen.
This has left Ksh7.05 billion in collection and settlement
accounts unaccounted for.
“Without formal agreements, there is a risk that service
providers may use public funds, compromising effective service delivery,”
Gathungu warned.
The audit also found Ksh2.57 billion in receipts that could
not be matched to any invoices in the Pesaflow system due to partial,
duplicate, or erroneous payments - exposing the system to potential fraud and
revenue loss.
Further scrutiny revealed inconsistencies in reported
collections.
For instance, the Government Digital Payments Unit claimed
Ksh 2.24 billion was due to the Tourism Fund, but only Ksh 1.72 billion
appeared in settlement records - leaving a Ksh515 million discrepancy.
Gathungu warned these systemic flaws could disrupt service
delivery across Government ministries, departments,
and agencies (MDAs) and counties.
eCitizen, managed by ECS LLC - a consortium of Webmasters
Kenya, Pesaflow, and Olive Tree Media - hosts over 22,000 Government services.
Despite the consortium defending its processes, the
Auditor-General maintains that serious accountability challenges persist.
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