The Meru County government is collection less revenue than the defunct municipal and county councils despite the growth in the economy a...
Speaking while contributing to a debate on the Meru Supplementary Appropriation Bill on Wednesday, several MCAs warned that the county may be losing local revenue to unscrupulous officers.
According to the 2016/2017 budget estimates that is set for public participation, the county treasury expects to collect Sh588.2 million from local revenue.
This is a drop from Sh817.9 million projected in the 2015/2016 financial year.
After failing to meet its target, the county treasury reviewed the 2015/2016 local revenue projections to Sh435.2 million through its supplementary budget estimates.
The county collected Sh539.4 million in 2014/2015 while Sh344 million was raised in 2013/2014 financial year.
SHORTFALLS IN REVENUE
The ward reps were angered by a move by the finance executive to slash Sh52 million from the Assembly citing shortfalls in local revenue and failure by the MCAs to pass finance Bills for the last two years.
Municipality Ward representative Kiome Rimbere, who served as the Meru Municipal Council mayor between 2009 and 2012, said the local authorities in Meru were collecting more than Sh1 billion annually before devolution.
“The Meru Central County council, the Meru Municipal Council, Nyambene County Council used to raise up to Sh300 million [each] while Maua Municipal Council was collecting Sh100 million annually. That totals to Sh1 billion.
“This was before we increased charges in the 2013/2014 Finance act and the economy was not as advanced as today,” Mr Rimbere said.
Kanuni Ward rep Safari Ntalala said the decline in local revenue meant the county economic growth was experiencing a downturn.
“This cannot be true because we know more people are buying cars, and more investors are putting up commercial buildings.
“The decline in local collections only means public resources are being pocketed [by individuals],” Mr Ntalala said.
LESS REVENUE DECLARED
Igoji West MCA Alphaxard Kaumbuthu Chabari said the county treasury may be declaring less revenue than what is being collected.
“The county government has more revenue sources. Why is the local revenue going down? We will need to scrutinise the local revenue collection schedules to establish the truth,” he said.
Mwanganthia Ward rep Julius Mbijiwe said revenue collected from agricultural machinery services and agricultural training centres was not clearly accounted for.
“The local revenue officer once told me that he would keep the public money in his pocket from Tuesday to Monday when he would add it over for banking.
“The persistent failure to meet revenue targets is a calculated move to create a vacuum in the budget,” Mr Mbijiwe said.
The assembly’s finance, budget and appropriation committee chairman Joshua Mithiaru blamed the situation on lack of a substantive chief officer, audit director and accounts director in the Finance department.
They called for establishments of proper mechanisms to come up with realistic local revenue targets.
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