• Although the collection reflects a 72 per cent performance level of the Sh5 billion set target and is the greatest ever for the county, Wamatangi said it is still inadequate.
• For the 2023-24 fiscal year, the governor has already established a target of Sh7.9 billion and a budget of Sh22 billion every year.
Image: GEORGE MUGO
The Kiambu government is installing Enterprise Resource Planning system to improve revenue collection, Governor Kimani Wamatangi has said.
He said ERP is a holistic system that covers the management of finances in all sectors such as hospital management, building approvals, business permits, and other revenue charges, as well as exploring more revenue streams.
The governor said his administration collected approximately Sh3.6 billion own source revenue in the financial year ending June 30, 2023.
The move, he said, will place Kiambu among the top performers in revenue collection.
“We need to support all our projects and serve our electorates to keep alive the spirit of devolution of bringing services closer to the people,” Wamatangi said.
According to the county's department of revenue report, the collection is Sh485 million more than the previous year. In the previous year the county collected Sh3.1 billion.
Although the collection reflects a 72 per cent performance level of the Sh5 billion set target and is the greatest ever for the county, Wamatangi said it is still inadequate.
For the 2023-24 fiscal year, the governor has already established a target of Sh7.9 billion and a budget of Sh22 billion every year.
"Even if there was an improvement throughout the period, there were a number we can applaud given that it was election season and there were transitional impacts,” Wamatangi said.
However, the finance department noted that approximately Sh2.5 billion was collected in the last two quarters of the financial year (January to June) and the county surpassed set targets in some months.
It also hinted that Sh1.31 billion was collected in January, February, and March against a set target of Sh1.25 billion, meaning the county hit the mark by about Sh100 million.
In July, August and September, Sh534 million was realised against a target of Sh1.25 billion, while in October, November, and December, when Wamatangi was grappling with transition intrigues, Sh585 million was raised.
From physical planning, there was a 16 per cent increase since Sh476 million was realised compared to Sh364 million in the previous year.
This was after Wamatangi terminated the electronic development application system, a move that was criticised by many.
He said his administration noted that developers were submitting applications but they become frustrated due to the system's frequent outages.
The governor said this has led to low performance, which has been attributed to the lack of a reliable system that ensures efficiency in the building plans approval process.
Some developers have remained for as long as three years without having their applications processed, and the governor claimed that corrupt officials would then demand bribes to process them outside of the system, depriving the county of revenue in the county's booming real estate market.
Vehicle parking revenue raised Sh308 million compared to Sh286 million the previous year, while single business permits raised Sh351 million compared to Sh249 million in 2021-22 (29 per cent increase).
However, the county boss said this was undervalued, saying the potential is Sh1 billion.
Finance executive Nancy Kirumba said there was room for improvement since there were strategies that will help the government to do so.
Traders have noted with concern that there was a lot of revenue being collected, asking the governor to ensure the county officials were working towards improving services.
“Wamatangi may have very good strategies, but he if will not be careful, county government worker might frustrate him. He has a lot to do, given the fact that he has a lot our trust,” trader Kimani Ngugi said.