Lack of proper revenue collection and management system exposed Nakuru County to massive looting, a report by Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission has revealed.
The Corruption Risk Assessment findings and recommendations into the county’s financial, procurement and human resource policies, systems was carried out by EACC prevention officers from June 27 to July 4, 2017.
The damning EACC report released on Monday cites failure by former Governor Kinuthia Mbugua’s administration to configure systems to incorporate all sources of revenue leading to loss of public funds.
“The Revenue Management Module in the Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis) could not accurately indicate the full amount of revenue collected at any one time,” said EACC deputy CEO Michael Mubea.
He said failure to include all revenue sources in the revenue collection module created an opportunity for theft leading to loss of taxpayers’ money.
At the time of assessment, the county executive had procured and implemented a revenue collection system to manage and monitor county’s revenue collection system.
The EACC noted that the ZIZI COUNTY, a county revenue collection system harbored weaknesses in compatibility and stability.
The county purchased the innovative revenue collection solution sometimes in 2014, replacing the LAIFORM SYSTEM that had been adopted by the defunct local authorities.
Mr Mubea while presenting the report to Governor Lee Kinyanjui said the system did not offer convenient modes of revenue payment by customers such as mobile payments.
He added that the system did not provide real time information relay as transacted by the banks for ease of confirmation and reconciliation.
The report highlighted that in the month of May 2017, the analysis report failed to indicate the amount of money collected from parking fees in the Nakuru central business district.
EACC chairman retired archbishop Eliud Wabukala said the county should work with the National Treasury to expedite the upgrading of the revenue collection and management systems.
“The county should enforce sound financial systems in relation to revenue management, payments, expenses, imprests and assets,” said archbishop Wabukala.
He said EACC was encouraging the county to commit to best practices and to sensitize its officials and the public on the importance of, “taking personal responsibility against corruption.”
The commission received 371 corruption reports touching on Nakuru County between 2015 and 2017. According to Commission on Revenue Allocation, Nakuru County received Sh43 billion in the last five years.
Governor Lee said the county would submit an implementation plan to the commission within a month.
“Corruption thrives when good citizens fail to play their patriotic duty of reporting malpractice within government,” Governor Lee said.
County Assembly of Nakuru speaker engineer Maina Kairu said the assembly would work with the executive to implement the report’s recommendations.