Nakuru County will digitize and automate all essential services to improve income streams and enhance provision of services.
Governor Susan Kihika said innovative use of Information Communication Technology would contribute to effective management of revenue collection while at the same time sealing revenue leakages and address other gaps in the devolved unit.
Governor Kihika further announced that she will automate and implement the Land Information Management System (LIM) to tame fraud and forgery of documents in land transactions.
She noted that digitization of financial dealings will enhance transparency and accountability, facilitate easy monitoring and correction of expenditure errors hence reduce misappropriation of funds.
“Essential services offered by the County Government including revenue collection, planning and development approvals, issuance of Single Business Permits (SBP) and trade licenses will soon be available on the e-citizen platform. This will eradicate corruption in revenue collection,” stated Governor Kihika.
Fully automating Single Business Permit, trade-license applications, planning and development approvals applications, the County boss noted, would immensely contribute to ease of doing business and make it easy for investors to set up shop after shortening the time previously taken to process documents.
“Automated revenue collection requires commitment to ensure all collected revenue is banked in government coffers. It removes losses, pilferage, and poor collections”, said Ms Kihika.
Her administration, she pledged, would continue facilitating Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) sensitization programmes in various departments to help personnel be conversant with pertinent digitization software.
The Governor pointed out that digitization and automation of services will increase efficiency as more clients will be able to access more services without necessarily going to government premises.
According to the County Health Services Sector Report Target- Medium Term Expenditure Framework 2022/2023 – 2024/2025, the devolved unit has fully adopted automated revenue collection technology in over 95 percent of public health facilities to enhance service delivery and accountability.
The report indicates that revenue collected from public health facilities in the county in the past three years has steadily risen from Sh957 million to the current Sh1.08 billion.
According to the document, the devolved unit surpassed set targets in the period under review due to automation of revenue collection and improved service delivery.
It indicates that though during the Financial Year 2018/19 while the planned target for the Department of Health was Sh685 million, it netted Sh957 million, while during the Financial Year 2019/2020 revenue generated rose to Sh1.9 billion against the projected Sh1 billion.
It has also been revealed that the cashless system adopted by the health facilities has enhanced accountability in revenue collection and minimized cases of corruption by sealing revenue leakages that costs the county millions of shillings every year.
During the Financial Year 2018/2019, 2019/20 and 2020/21, revenue collected amounted to Sh957,022,225, Sh1,085,902,883.65, and Sh1,194,128,375.15 respectively.
The revenue was generated from the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital (PGH), PGH Annex wing, Bahati Hospital, Naivasha, Gilgil, Molo, Olenguruone, Elburgon, Subukia, Njoro, Langalanga, Kabazi, Keringet, and Mirugi Kariuki.
Other hospitals are Bondeni maternity located within Nakuru Town East and Mogotio hospital in Rongai.
Ms Kihika also stated that she would facilitate laying of fibre optic cables to connect the County and Sub-County Headquarters, provide free WIFI in all public spaces within the Central Business District (CBD) including markets, incubation hubs and the Nyayo Gardens Park.
The Governor gave an undertaking to construct ICT hubs in each of the 11 sub counties to help train the youth on opportunities available online, which will complement the two hubs in Olenguruone and Subukia.
She added, “I also intend to establish linkages with scientific, technology, innovations and research communities for knowledge sharing, technology transfer and development of innovative local solutions using appropriate technology. We will partner with ICT stakeholders to provide the youth with training on adequate telephony and big data transmission to meet existing and projected capacities and demands.”
By Jane Ngugi and Charloth Chepkemoi
