Opinion: Years into devolution, counties still can’t collect their own money
Until counties can reliably collect what is legally theirs, every argument about allocations from the centre is about the wrong pot of money.
Every budget season brings the same argument: counties want a bigger share of national revenue, and the National Treasury says there is no more to give. Both sides are missing the point.
Most counties collect only a fraction of the revenue they are legally entitled to raise themselves — from parking, markets, licences and property rates.
The quiet failure
Own-source revenue is the quiet failure of devolution. Systems are fragmented, collection is often manual, and leakage is widely acknowledged but rarely measured.
A county that cannot collect parking fees is not ready to argue about billions.
Where to start
Digital collection, published monthly figures and independent audits would change the conversation quickly. Counties that show they can collect what is theirs will have far stronger standing when they ask for more.
Sample article for testing the Viewpoints website layout. Names, figures and quotes are illustrative, not real reporting. Delete before launch (filter by the “Sample content” tag).
