Narok County government has placed a target of collecting over Sh3 billion in Own Source Revenue (OSR) in the year 2025 to boost development in the county.
According to the report from the Controller of Budget for the 2022-23 financial year, the county collected Sh3.061 billion as OSR, meaning the new revenue target is almost double what the county collected two years ago.
Governor Patrick Ntutu made the commitment during the signing of the performance contract of the County Executive Committee Members (CECM), which was done at the county headquarters.
“Upon assuming office, my administration introduced the performance contracting system to enhance service delivery. We recognise performance contracting as a vital management framework for streamlining and elevating the quality and impact of public service,” he said.
He lauded the Finance Department for the increase in revenue collection in the previous year that has made the county ranked among the best in OSR.
Ntutu said his administration targets increasing the revenue collected by sealing all corruption loopholes and ensuring all staff were actively doing what they were employed to do.
He reiterated that his administration has been able to build the capacity of the staff through training senior officers in all departments, who are tasked with the responsibility of coordinating and monitoring implementation of performance contracts in their respective departments.
“These trainings have contributed to the successful implementation of last year's performance contract, as we have been able to evaluate the performance of each and every department, address the challenges encountered during the implementation, and agree on the next step of action,” he said.
He underscored that the culture of performance contracting is key for service delivery as it enabled the departments to identify all the key human resources in their respective dockets.
“We began by doing an audit of human resources, which enabled us to identify the key human resources within the county. This helped us eliminate the ghost workers and the retired officers,” he continued.
All the staff will be required to sign the performance contract by February 2025, and a quarterly evaluation will be carried out so as to assess the employees before the end of the year.
The governor said the best departments would be rewarded so as to motivate the employees, who will have performed better than others.
“I have seen a lot of improvement among our staff since we started the performance contracting a year ago. Now that we have been given an opportunity to serve the people, let us do it diligently,” he said.
Present during the occasion were Narok County Secretary Mayian Tuya and Narok Deputy Governor Tamalinye Koech.
The county gets a high chunk of its revenue from the World Famous Maasai Mara Game Reserve, where millions of both domestic and foreign tourists flock every year to enjoy rich fauna and flora species.