Economy

Taxpayers lobby sets up data portal for counties

kubebea

National Taxpayers Association chairman Peter Kubebea during the launch of a forum that provides information on counties at the Hilton Hotel, Nairobi, on Monday. DIANA NGILA

The National Taxpayers Association (NTA) has launched a web-enabled GIS platform to collect satellite information about counties and guide governors on allocating resources.

The platform, launched in Nairobi on Monday, is designed to run on smartphones and other web-enabled devices, provide up-to-date county maps, information on state of natural resources, public infrastructure, economic activities and social amenities.

“The numerous cases where millions of shillings are being allocated to non-priority areas such as cars and governors’ housing indicate that devolution can only make sense if counties have timely information,” said NTA National Co-ordinator Martin Napisa.

County governments have hit headlines in recent weeks after they released budgets with huge deficits and millions of shillings allocated to non-priority areas. Experts have attributed the budget mismatch to lack of updated information about counties.

The new platform, developed by LocateIT Ltd, has been piloted in Kakamega County in the last two years setting pace for its adoption by the other counties.

Allocation of the Constituency Development Fund to projects in the 12 constituencies in Kakamega County is guided by satellite information.

With more than 18 million phone users in the country, the platform is expected to enhance public participation by enabling citizens to communicate their priorities to governors and to track progress of the publicly funded projects.

‘‘Feeding their needs directly into the web portal residents can, for instance, choose water, sanitation and health; agriculture, environment and energy; education or roads or any other projects important to them,” NTA National Secretary Kennedy Masime said.

According to the County Government Act (2012) Part XI, paragraph 110, all counties are expected to create a GIS database for integrated planning.

NTA officials said the GIS information will help countries to develop annual and strategic plans. Other than increasing public participation, the platform is also intended to boost county revenue collection as it will map and track all resources available.

Funded by Pact, the platform can be replicated in the 47 counties capturing different details including priority needs collected from residents.

Mr Erick Khamala, the platform architect and MD of LocateIT, said the platform can be scaled up to accommodate any number of aspects from showing the state of infrastructure in a county to school enrolment, staffing, physical facilities as well as the state of sanitation in a particular institution.

Revenue collection in defunct Kisumu municipality went up by Sh12 million in the first months of implementing GIS, Mr Khamala said

“County governments can leverage on this technology to cut costs, increase physical space and improve revenue collection,” Mr Khamala said.

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