The Senate Standing Committee on Information, Communication and Technology is now appealing to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to approach and strike a deal with the county governments to enhance revenue collection to mitigate the theft and misuse of public resources that is currently witnessed in the counties
Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner General Humphrey Wattanga while appearing before the Senate Standing Committee on Information, Communication and Technology
The move comes after the Kenya Revenue Authority Informed Senators that most county governments are using multiple non-integrated revenue collection and management systems which they don’t have full administration and control over leading to loss of public fund
During a meeting with KRA’s top management led by Commissioner General Humphrey Wattanga at Parliament Buildings, the Members of the Senator Allan Chesang-led Committee decried the lack of full systems administration and control of the vendor-owned systems by counties and advised the Authority to help county governments to collect and manage their own source revenue.
“If counties don’t have the requisite rights to manage these systems, they cannot efficiently manage accountability and responsibility for revenue collection and performance. I suggest you approach them to be their revenue-collecting agents to prevent these monies going to people’s pockets,” Elgeyo Marakwet Senator William Kisang’ said.
Senator Godfrey Osotsi of Vihiga) and his Nandi counterpart Samson Cherargei urged the National Government to support the county governments in developing, implementing, and rolling out an Integrated County Revenue Management System that supports both structured and unstructured revenue streams to stop the wanton leakage.
On his part, Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner General Humphrey Wattanga urged the Senate to anchor the Integrated County Revenue Management System in the Public Finance Management Act to empower the National Treasury, through KRA, to develop and implement the centralized system.
The ICT Committee met with KRA’s top leadership to deliberate on the Committee’s inquiry into the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS) and other county revenue collection and management systems.