Homa Bay County Terminates Contracts Of Revenue Agents Citing Massive Losses In Collection
Homa Bay boss, Governor Cyprian Awiti has terminated the contracts of more than 400 revenue commission agents as an effort to curb massive loss of revenue in the county.
The revenue commission agents are the ones accountable for collecting revenue from taxpayers in markets and bus stops.
The agents get their dues via commission, which is a percentage of the total amount of revenue each of them collects.
During the swearing in of four chief officers in the county headquarters, the Governor said that he had taken note that there was massive loss of the collected revenue and that the agents are to blame.
Awiti claimed that there people who collect revenue and pocket them instead of submitting them to the county bank accounts.
That was the reason why he was disbanding services of the revenue commission agents.
Revenue collection in some towns has have declined compared to the era of defunct local authorities.
The Governor gave an order to each of his ten executive members to identify 20 persons from their departments to take the temporary role as revenue collectors.
He also banned a trend in which some county departments have been keeping their revenue in departmental accounts.
Such revenue is collected in the form of payment for land rates, liquor lenses, plot rents among others.
In the presence of his deputy Hamilton Orata directed that revenue from all streams must be deposited in one account to enhance accountability.
This means the departmental heads who want to spend revenue collected in a development project must request for the funds through the county treasury.
The governor said that his directing that any cent collected from tax payers must be deposited in one revenue account to avoid pilferage of public funds. He added that he doesn’t want to hear any department keeping revenue elsewhere.
The Governor disclosed hard times with the senatorial Public Accounts and Investments Committee last week over poor revenue collection.
He warned the county officials that anybody found stealing revenue will be arrested and prosecuted.
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