Kakamega County adopts new system to step up revenue collection

Kakamega County Government has adopted a new revenue system known as Geospatial Information System (GIS) from the previous Point of Sale (POS) system, targeting Sh3.3 billion own revenue.

Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa said the system is designed to track where a revenue officer is, what the officer is doing and how much he/she has collected, and transfer the information to the main revenue system.

Mr Barasa noted that the normal gadgets have hindered effective revenue collection due to slow systems that delay transmission of monies and can be tempered.

“I received a report from Lugari last week that traders were queuing to pay Sh50 because the POS gadgets were unresponsive and we are not going to allow that anymore. We need an effective system to enable us to surpass our Sh3.3 billion target,” Barasa said.

The governor spoke during a consultative meeting between the county executive and Commissioner Hadija Nganyi of the Commission for Revenue Allocation. Mr Barasa said the new system is more efficient and will make it possible to track revenue collected. “The system allows administrators to track where an officer is, what they are doing, how much they have collected, and what revenue stream it belongs to,” he said.

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He said his administration has put across various measures to ensure it hits and surpasses its Sh2.2 billion revenue target against the county’s Sh5.8 billion annual potential.

The governor said he has directed more human workforce to the revenue department who are expected to enforce revenue collection in various sectors across the county.

“Most of the officers in this group will be posted to support revenue collection in each of the 12 constituencies and they will be redeployed to other sectors periodically,” Barasa said.

Barasa recently met a team from Safaricom PLC to discuss the review and restructuring of the county’s revenue collection system. “From now going forward we are going to have portable mobile phones to help track revenue collected in real-time and for which specific revenue stream. This will help us in accountability and transparency,” he said.

He said the collaboration aims at enhancing the revenue collection process by identifying and addressing gaps in the system for hospitals including levels IV, III, and II across the County.

The telecommunications company is expected to provide solutions to improve efficiency and effectiveness. They revealed that the county has more than 200 revenue streams that have yet to be realised.

Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA) Commissioner Hadija Nganyi called on county officials to benchmark strategies used to enhance the collection of revenue in various streams that are doing well in counties.

“For instance, we have Taita Taveta doing well in markets, and Uasin Gishu is doing well in parking fees among others. As a commission we are ready to support you in any way that will help you improve your collection,” Nganyi said.

Last month, the county government employed 200 marshals whose roles include assisting in carrying out regular patrols in parking areas to ensure orderly parking and traffic management while also responding to safety emergency alerts.

In August Barasa directed all departments to submit a list of staff to be redeployed to the revenue department under the Rapid Response Initiative (RRI).