The Ksh65million collected by the National Transport and Safety Authority(NTSA) as revenue from issuance of foreign vehicle travel permit fees, has raised an alarm to the members of the parliament. The travel permit fees is dependent upon the duration of applicants’ stay within the country and the engine capacity of the vehicles used.
However, through a report by state corporations, the National Assembly Public Investments Committee says that the supporting documents such as permits issued and application for renewal were not presented to the auditor for verification purposes. According to the members of parliament without proper documentation from NTSA, it was not possible to confirm the exact sum collected by either Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) or NTSA and how it is being used.
Quoting from the report, it says “ Although the management explained that the fee is collected by the KRA, evidence of the measures in place to ensure all the revenue due is collected and accounted for was not provided for audit.”. Pulling itself from the allegations, NTSA told the committee that it was the responsibility of the KRA to collect the amounts, but they are in a joint system for information sharing, adding that all the revenues received under this revenue stream were fully supported with schedules from the E-citizen platform where it was collected.
The safety authority, further cited that it absence at the border due to the East African Border Protocol which does not allow many agencies to be present at the border except KRA. NTSA also said that to ensure seamless service delivery, they had adopted a multi-agency team approach of end-to-end system integration with KRA and the Government Digital Payment Platform.
The agency also added that it was in the process of finalising engagement with KRA with a view to integrating their custom system with the Transport Integrated Management System to allow the Authority to have a role to play in the collection of revenues. The committee now requires NTSA and KRA accounting officers to swiftly finalize the information sharing agreement on imported vehicles and implement it in this financial year to ensure transparency.
