The Kakamega government will roll out a cashless revenue collection system to seal theft loopholes, Governor Wycliffe Oparanya has said.
The system will be launched on June 1. It will be operated by telecom provider Safaricom and supervised by the county’s revenue collection agency.
Oparanya and county officials met Safaricom representatives in Kisumu on Thursday.
“The move would stem revenue leakages and double or triple revenue. In Kenya, only 10 per cent of county governments have managed to meet their revenue targets. Kakamega is not among them,” he said.
The county collects an average of Sh500 million annually from local streams.
Safaricom presented its e-health and e-revenue solutions, which it said can boost revenue collection and service delivery without necessarily relying on its M-Pesa platform.
Other options are online applications and smartcards.
County officials in the meeting included CEC member for ICT, E-government and Communication George Lutomia, his Treasury counterpart Geoffrey Omulayi, chief of staff Robert Sumbi, chief officers Eugene Wamalwa and John Imbogo, and economic adviser Paul Posho.
Oparanya said the newly created department of ICT, Communication and E-Government will play a pivotal role in ensuring cutting-edge ICT drives efficiency, and reduces costs and rampant theft of revenue.
The e-citizen platform lets citizens access and pay for services online.
Oparanya intends to set high targets for revenue collection and hold officers accountable for achievement of those targets.
“The Kakamega Revenue Agency will be revamped to ensure it delivers on its mandate of increasing revenue collection,” he said.
The county has also launched a network connectivity project to transform it into a ‘smart county’ through a single expanded hub of digital porting in all 12 subcounties.
The county chief said this will improve digital literacy and service efficiency.
“These changes herald a new phase in the governance and administration of county business,” he said.
“I’m putting all government employees on notice. We will no longer tolerate absenteeism, apathy, poor services, nepotism and corruption.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Hilton Otenyo
Quelle/Source: The Star, 05.05.2018
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