Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo has asked the Kakamega government to formulate and implement strategies to increase revenue collection.
Odhiambo, in her budget review for the first nine months of 2017-18, said county’s revenue collection declined from Sh300 million in 2016-17 to Sh284 million, a 5.6 per cent drop.
The county projected to generate Sh774.57 million, which would be six per cent of its Sh12.9 billion budget.
The county has since adopted cashless revenue collection to reduce leakages.
Governor Wycliffe Oparanya
in May said the cashless system would be operated by telecom provider Safaricom and supervised by the county’s revenue collection agency.
“The move would stem revenue leakages and double or triple revenue,” he said.
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.
A total of Sh5 billion was spent on recurrent activities, while Sh1.41 billion was spent on development.
The May report recommends the county Public Service Board establish an optimal staffing structure to curb the wage bill. The report covers July 2017 to March.
The report says the county wage bill increased by 31 per cent, from Sh 2.78 billion in the first nine months of 2016-17 financial year to Sh4.03 billion in the period under review.
The report says the county has made progress in addressing some budget implementation challenges.
These included improved staff capacity, especially in the Finance department through continuous training, and establishment of an internal audit committee to oversee operations in line with the law.
The report says the county spent Sh 41.4 million on committee sitting allowances for 88 MCAs against the annual allocation of Sh 143.23 million. This was a decline of 48.8 per cent compared to Sh 80.9 million in the first nine months of 2016-17.
The average monthly sitting allowance was Sh52,278 per MCA, compared to Salaries and Remuneration Commission’s recommended monthly ceiling of Sh80,000.
“The office is committed to promoting prudent financial management in the public sector and encourages readers of this report to take active interest in budget formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation,” Odhiambo says in the report.