Treasury of the County Government of Machakos has been urged to pay pending four months’ salaries of its revenue collectors to safe guard public taxes and increase revenue collection.
Addressing press at a hotel in Mlolongo on Monday, Alice Nzioka, WIPER Party nominated MCA said it is not practical for the county employees to be effective and honest in their work without pay.
“I urge the county government's treasury to speedily settle four months’ pending salaries of the tax collectors to safe guard public taxes and improve the county's revenue collection," said Nzioka.
Nzioka said it beat logic for an employee who has not been paid for that long to honestly collect taxed money and remit it without stealing a part of it.
She said the situation has adversely compromised revenue collection in the county, accusing some of the collectors of stealing part of the taxes they collect to sort out their bills on daily basis leading to great losses by the county government.
“How can someone collect money the whole day, then in the evening go borrowing goods at shops in which he collected the same taxes? This is incredible," said Nzioka.
She further noted that some of the gadgets used to collect revenue in the county had been manipulated by the tax collectors to show wrong figures and less days to avoid being noticed by the county inspectors.
The MCA said the county assembly's finance committee, in which she is a member, visited a Mavoko Quarry early this year and determined that huge amount of taxes collected were never remitted to the county's treasury and instead swindled by the collectors.