Missed revenue collection targets worry senators
What you need to know:
- The Senate County Public Accounts and Investment Committee said failure by the devolved units to eliminate corruption was to blame for the reduced revenue.
- The senators blamed governors for the dismal performance of the counties.
The Senate has expressed fears that development in the counties would be slowed down following revelations that many county governments were collecting less revenue compared to the defunct local authorities.
The Senate County Public Accounts and Investment Committee chaired by Boni Khalwale said failure by the devolved units to eliminate corruption was to blame for the reduced revenue.
The senators blamed governors for the dismal performance of the counties.
“The Senate will not tolerate complacency in the management of the counties. A lot of money is getting lost. Corruption is feeding on our inefficiency,” said Dr Khalwale on Wednesday.
The committee members, among them Kimani Wamatangi (Kiambu, TNA), Muriuki Karue (Nyandarua, TNA), and Martha Wangari (Nominated, UDF) had visited Taita-Taveta County.
They warned the governors against wastage of county funds while claiming that they were entitled to shareable revenue from the national budget.
HEATED ARGUMENT
The senators took issue with revelations that the county had only collected Sh100 million out of a target of Sh401 million, two months before the end of the 2013/14 Financial Year.
The meeting degenerated into a heated argument when the senators demanded to know why the county officials included Local Authority Transfer Funds (Latf) as part of the revenue collected by the county.
They said Latf were funds that were allocated to the county through the national budget, just like the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), and it was wrong to portray them as revenue collected by the county.
The county’s Finance and Planning Executive, Dr Vincent Masawi, was at pains to explain why the county had set high revenue targets that affect planning when they could not collect half of the funds.
County Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee chairman Omar Ahmed said cases of revenue officers using fake receipts in collections had denied many counties millions of shillings.
“Court orders are frustrating our oversight roles. The County Executive Committees are seeking refuge in courts whenever we want to call upon them to account for public funds,” Mr Ahmed told the committee.
