The Senate Committee on ICT wants counties to increase the collection of their own source revenue as one way to deal with the wage bill crisis.
Members of the committee chaired by Trans Nzoia Senator Allan Chesang said the majority of counties fail to collect maximum internal revenue due lack of effective digitized systems to manage the collections.
Chesang said they are touring counties to assess their capacity to collect the internal revenues which can be utilized to deal with wage bill challenges among other needs
The committee members spoke in Eldoret after paying a courtesy call to Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said some of the counties fell far short of the amount they can collect as internal revenue annually.
“Uasin Gishu here can collect over Sh2 billion but we thank the governor who has worked hard to ensure that they are now at Sh1.4 billion as at last financial year,” Cherargei said.
He said the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) had recommended an Integrated County Revenue Management System which would help to seal all loopholes through which counties lose a lot of revenues.
“We are encouraging counties to do everything possible to collect as much as possible so that we ensure the wage bills do not go beyond the recommended 35 per cent,” Cherargei said.
He said Uasin Gishu was using a Pay system which had helped to increase the internal revenues for the county.
He said own source revenue can enable counties to be self-sustaining instead of relying on the equitable sharing revenue from the treasury.
Cherargei has urged counties to utilize money still being held in the CRF at the Central Bank of Kenya.
Senator William Chesang regretted that some counties were still collecting revenue manually resulting in heavy losses of money.
He said there were massive leakages in county revenues and that is why they are going around the counties to ensure they seal all the loopholes causing losses.
“That is why we believe one integrated system will be useful to help the counties collect to a maximum level," he said.
The committee members will also visit Elgeyo Marakwet and Trans Nzoia counties.