Kakamega County introduces cashless revenue system to tame corruption

Kakamega County Governor Wycliffe Oparanya    BY BENJAMIN SAKWA

The county government is planning to introduce a cashless revenue collection system to help it meet its targets.

The county has failed to meet its revenue targets for the past five years.

Governor Wycliffe Oparanya attributed this partly to corruption among his officers in the revenue office.

He said the cashless system would seal loopholes that had seen his government fail to meet its Sh1 billion revenue target last year, when it managed only Sh500 million.

The governor said poor record keeping and lack of accountability also contributed to the revenue challenges.

This has in turn affected service delivery, he said yesterday.

"To address the challenges, I have restructured the county government by creating more departments that will improve revenue collection by sealing graft loopholes," said Mr Oparanya.

He also reshuffled some of the officers in the audit department in a bid to boost service delivery.

“There has been rampant corruption, a bad attitude towards work and dishonesty among county employees, which has posed serious challenges to our efforts to enhance service delivery,” he said.

“The cashless revenue collection system will seal the leaks. We will set high targets for revenue collection and it is up to our officers to make sure that we achieve these targets.”

He said the Kakamega Revenue Agency would be revamped to ensure that they delivered their mandate.

“The Ministry of ICT, Communication and E-Government will ensure that the county enhances the use of ICT for efficiency through a platform that enables citizens to access and pay for services on-line,” he said.