The Senate Committee on Information, Communication and Technology has urged county governments to integrate their revenue collection and management systems to be compatible with the national Government’s revenue management system. 

This comes after the Controller of Budget (Dr.) Margaret Nyakang’o informed the Senators that many counties have developed customized revenue management systems through private developers, which aren’t based on the Standard Charts of Accounts and aren’t compatible with the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS). 

While meeting with the Controller of Budget and the Auditor General earlier today, the Members of the Senator Allan Chesang-led Committee were appalled to learn that some counties have procured stand-alone receipting systems instead of investing in complete Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions. 

“Article 190 of the Constitution provides that counties should use financial management systems compatible with the national systems. The implementation of the customized revenue collection management systems by counties is unconstitutional,” Senator Godfrey Osotsi decried.

They added that the county government’s failure to automate and integrate its revenue collection and management systems is putting counties’ own-source revenue at apparent risk of abuse by the county bosses. 

“Many counties don’t have laws regulating the collection of their revenues of even the tariffs, which puts them at risk. The CRA has formulated a model tariff structure that the counties can use in formulating the necessary legislation,” Senator Chesang added. 

On her part, the controller of Budget informed the Senators that the National Treasury have formed a task force to support the design and prescribe an efficient County Integrated Revenue Management System to support full automation of the county own source revenue management. 

 “The standardized revenue collection and management systems will not only ensure uniformity in reporting by counties but also save counties the costs associated with purchase of independent systems,” Dr. Margaret Nyakang’o informed Senators. 

She added that the integration aims to facilitate monitoring and financial control of the own source revenue and facilitate oversight by the National Treasury. 

The ICT Committee resolved to inquire into the status of County Revenue Collection and Management Systems in counties to ensure Kenyans get value for their money.