Cartels in Kakamega have opposed the cashless revenue collection system.
Governor Wycliffe Oparanya on June 26 launched the Electronic Resource Planning and e-revenue collection platform at Bukhungu Stadium. He said it is aimed at plugging corruption loopholes.
The end -to-end integrated Oracle ERP System platform will be implemented by Cybyl Kenya, service provider Safaricom and Kenya Commercial Bank.
A section of residents, particularly traders have been complaining that the system was not effective and is cumbersome to operate.
Some insiders had told the Star that the platform had not been properly configured. But county ICT and e-government executive George Lutomia dismissed the claims as propaganda by those in the system opposed to change.
He said that the rollout of the system was successful. He said that partial digitisation of the revenue collection in 2018 has raised local revenue collection from Sh500 million to Sh8oo million in the 2018-19 financial year.
“The system is meant to seal off loopholes in critical areas like hospitals and parking where the county was losing a lot of money. Some staff are opposed to the platform because it will now deny them access to cash,” Lutomia said in his office yesterday.
The people out there are not against the platform but there is resistance from within and that is what we are dealing with , he said.
Oparanya said the platform targets to improve revenue collection and enhance service delivery to the people.
“County governments across the country inherited manual revenue collection systems from the defunct local authorities. These systems are undermined by in-built inefficiencies that expose them to fraud and revenue leakages,” he said.
Kakamega has twice been penalised Sh200 million by the Commission on Revenue Allocation for missing its targets in revenue collection.
(Edited by P Wanambisi)
