Commision on Revenue Allocation (CRA) implores counties to digitize revenue collection!
-I am pleased to commend counties for the effort in increasing their own sources of revenue collection from a low of 300M to a high of 2Billion-
Commissioner Hadija Juma together with governor Jonathan Bii after a meeting with heads of various departments at the county boardroom on July 4.
Commision on Revenue Allocation (CRA) has hailed Devolved Units for embracing devolution which has spurred development in all 47 counties for the last 10 years.
The commission said due to an enhanced approach towards its own revenue collection, the majority of the counties have steadily increased revenue collection ranging between Sh300m to Sh2 billion.
Speaking in Eldoret after evaluating the progress of various departments in Uasin Gishu County, commissioner Hadija Juma hailed various counties for embracing modern technology in revenue collection hence minimizing cases of wastage of resources and corruption.
“I must hail the majority of our counties for doing everything possible to boost their own revenue collection. I am pleased to commend counties for the effort in increasing their own sources of revenue collection from a low of 300M to a high of 2Billion,” said Commissioner Juma.
Commissioner Juma challenged counties to continue embracing various viable mechanisms of enhancing revenue collection to spur economic growth in their counties.
According to commissioner Juma, if counties adopt a vibrant method of revenue collections, vibrant development is experienced in devolved units.
“As a commission we wish to encourage countries to adopt measures to enhance their own source revenue collection and also learn from the best practices from other counties that are witnessing great success in enhancing their own source revenue Collection,” said Commissioner Juma.
Since the adoption of devolved units, the Commission has been assisting counties to enhance their own sources of revenue collection.
Ms Juma said the commission is working together with all counties to address myriad of challenges in order to reach their own source revenue potential to minimize cases of delayed exchequer releases and pending bills.
She said that the Commission is open to a harmonious engagement with all counties for the benefit of service provision to the citizens.
“We are always available to provide any technical assistance to the counties on public finance management matters as and when required,” she said.
She said there are still more potential areas for funds for counties which are yet to be exploited to the maximum.
She cited Nairobi County as one of the counties with huge potential of collecting Up To 67billions while Uasingishu county has a potential of collecting up to 2.8billion.
The commission has said through Equitable basic share where this financial year counties will receive 385 billion to be shared equitably among county governments, development in counties is expected to be witnessed in all 47 counties.
This financial year the president allocated 43billion to the counties on six thematic areas including subsidized fertilizer, universal health care, water, industrial parks, roads, and urban services.
The commission has embarked on impact assessment of devolution in all 47 counties to see what devolution has done to Kenyans.
The governments in both colonial and post-colonial Kenya developed and implemented a number of policies to address socio-economic inequality.
The clamor for fair access to social, economic, and political opportunities culminated in the promulgation of the Constitution in 2010 which focuses on equitable social and economic development across the country.
Over the ten years of devolution (FY 2013/14-2022/23), substantial resources have been allocated to county governments to provide services to citizens.
CRA is analysing and documenting the level of service delivery across six sectors namely: health, agriculture, water, roads, education and urban services in the counties.
The six sectors constitute the core devolved functions which account for over 60 percent of the total county budgets.
“As members of the Third Commission, we have embarked on a number of tasks key among them being: commencing the preparation of the Fourth Basis for revenue sharing among county governments,” said Commissioner Juma.
As a first step in preparing the Fourth Basis, the Commission has already requested county governments, the public and other stakeholders to give their comments on the Third Basis so as to enable the commission to annalyse success and address challenges that have been experienced for the last ten years.
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