Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir on Friday said he is committed to increasing the collection of own-source revenue to grow the coastal county.
Barely one month after being sworn in as the second Mombasa governor, Nassir said they have been able to improve revenue collection in the region.
He said they have improved revenue collection by at least 70 per cent at all the cess points and all the parking areas in Mombasa. Their focus has now shifted to markets.
The county chief said they have established a new team of Mombasa revenue enforcement officers who have been deployed in all revenue collection points to replace the county inspectorate officers.
The new revenue team, which comprises 30 officers drawn from different departments within the county, has replaced the inspectorate officers who had been deployed at the county cess points, parking areas and markets.
Mombasa has three cess points, including Miritini, Shanzu and Likoni. The region has several markets, including Kongowea which is the largest, as Majengo, Marikiti and Likoni.
“Since this new team started working in the cess point, which is one of the county’s streams of revenue, we have seen an improvement of about 70 per cent,” the governor said.
The county is collecting in excess of Sh1.3 million from the three cess points daily.
He was speaking during a meeting with Radio Africa Group’s chief operations officer Agnes Kalekye and head of content Paul Ilado. The team from Radio Africa had paid Nassir a courtesy call in his office.
The county chief said the changes are part of the Rapid Response Initiative that he had said his administration would undertake within the first 100 days.
In county parking fees, Nassir said, the level of compliance among the Public Service Vehicle owners was below 30 per cent.
“If we are able to raise the compliance rate to 100 percent in all the departments, then Mombasa will be collecting enough to fund its operations,” he said.
According to Nassir, out of Sh6 billion Mombasa receives from the national government, 83 percent goes to paying salaries.
“This is way above the required minimum percentage of 35 per cent. We are spending more on salaries and the remaining amount goes to the payment of other bills like electricity and others,” he said.
“To cure this problem, we are now focusing on increasing the collection of our own sourced revenue. We have put measures in place to ensure that we collect as much as possible and every business complies.”
He said that Mombasa has an ambitious plan of enacting the Mombasa Revenue Services, which will operate like Kenya Revenue Authority, whereby it would look into all revenue streams and ensure that all loopholes are covered.
“We want to have a centralised point of looking into our revenue streams and source. The county economy is already in bad shape, we cannot afford to burden the citizens into paying extra that’s why we are moving in to seal loopholes,” he said.
The governor promised that in the next Finance Bill, Mombasa residents would see a reduction in the payment of licenses.
“We are also going to see the single business permit collapsed into one, you will no longer have to pay for health, fire and other licenses separately. You just pay once to process the licenses,” Nassir said.
A task force is expected to table its report within the next 60 days.
At the same time, the county chief said the Kongowea market is now operating 24 hours daily.
“We installed security lights and CCTV cameras. I have asked the traders now to play their part by ensuring that they pay the county fees, and we have witnessed some changes as traders are willing to pay,” he said.
He said the other markets within the county would also soon start operating 24 hours daily.
Nassir said they have established two teams to work on the issue of the state of finances and healthcare systems in Mombasa.
Dr Chibanzi Mwachonda chairs the Healthcare Systems Task force and Mahmoud Noor is in charge of the Finances Task force.
The two teams are expected to audit and give back recommendations to the governor within two months.
According to a report by the office of the Controller of Budget, Mombasa’s outstanding pending bills as of June 30, 2021, amounted to Sh4.46 billion.
The outstanding bills comprised Sh1.8 billion for recurrent expenditure and Sh2.66 billion for development expenditure.
During the period reviewed , pending bills amounting to Sh1.3 billion were settled, consisting of Sh853.28 million for recurrent expenditure and Sh448.94 million for development programmes. This resulted in outstanding pending bills amounting to 3.16 billion as of March 31, 2022.
The Office of the Auditor General listed the eligible pending bills as of June 30, 2020, at Sh1.61 billion out of which the county has settled bills amounting to Sh202.61 million, leaving a balance of Sh1.41 billion as of March 2022.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
