System Automation And Revenue Collection In Siaya County Government, Kenya

Abstract

The objective of the revenue collection department is to employ the resources at their disposal to achieve the targeted revenue collection. This is possible when the right strategies are used and both the collectors and payers are well sensitized. Several studies have shown that the use of technology can help improve effectiveness and efficiency in the collection of revenue. In the collection of own source revenue a county government must improve the tax base to net as many payers as possible while using minimal resources for the process to be cost effective. In this research a longitudinal study is done to cover the six years that the county governments have been in place. Secondary data showing the annual revenue targets and collections is used for analysis while taking into consideration the level of system automation in the particular financial year. A relationship between the level of automation and revenue collected is thenstudied. The study establishes that 21.74% of the revenue streams are fully automated with 30.43% being non- automated. Revenue streams which are fully automated show stability in collection by being non-volatile to external factors unlike the semi-automated and non-automated revenue streams. The average collection by the fully automated revenue streams post higher averages than the other streams. The analyzed linear regression model indicate a positive relationship between system automation and revenue collection with beta coefficients being 0.394 for ECR and 0.328 for POS. The study further recommends the introduction and usage of mobile money transfers to create even more impact on revenue collection.