Kenya
Revenue Authority is on the neck of its chief manager at Kilindini port after
the tax collector fell short of meeting the intended target this quarter.
The
chief manager Kenneth Ocholla last week openly shed tears when he received a
memo informing him to show the reason why the authority should not have him
fired after KRA fell short with Sh7billion in this quarter.
It
is the first time since the tax collector had such a huge deficit in any given
quarter and the chief manager might as well have broken the record in
registering lowest ever revenue as the in charge Kilindini.
The
manager, according to his juniors, developed unfriendly mood throughout last
week since he had no answer to give to his Times Towers bosses in Nairobi upon
receiving the letter said to have been fuming and already planning for his
replacement envisaged to take place this week.
It
is said that the manager did not advise his bosses a few weeks ago on who to
transfer and who not to, when the authority moved 300 graduate officers who
were knowledgeable with many tax collection skills.
The
transferred officers were taken out to border stations with no real tax
collection points as was the case in Mombasa where they helped the enforcement
department collect revenue and met their targets.
Those
who were left to carry out the sensitive revenue collection docket according to
our sources are the old guards who are remaining with only two or three years
to retire and many of whom were
messengers, drivers and junior clerks who have no idea how to log into a
computer or carry out thorough duty valuation.
Most
of these old guards are said not even to be able to calculate simple basic
valuation tools like CPRS which calculates duty on imported motor vehicle duty.
They
have no idea of the valuation matrix as their graduate colleagues had it all in
their skills and to an extent; many could not even fathom the Simba System, but
were able to do simple reporting only.
It
is now dawning on those who masterminded the transfers of the 300 officers sent
to various borders in the country to tackle smuggling that not all is well.
Many of the officers sent to various border points, are languishing at border
police stations unable to go carry out their duties, for fear of armed
smugglers, while no arrangements have been done for them to get backup from the
police force.
Meanwhile,
in Mombasa, a new breed of young girls has replaced all the heads of verifications
officers who were also transferred to border control points. However, the
digital girls are said to be busy chatting online with the outside world during
office hours and clubbing at night enjoying Mombasa to their fullest and have
nothing to do with tax collection.
The
cluster managers are already wondering how the sensitive positions were given
to the young girls, if the authority was serious with revenue collection
targets in each quarter.
Somewhere
at Panafric Hotel in Nairobi, some senior KRA Commissioners hellbent at seeing
the downfall of the Commissioner of Customs Services, were celebrating the Sh7
billion deficit saying it was all they required to have the much feared
commissioner sidelined.
The
Commissioner of Customs Services had sealed several loopholes that were in the
past used to loot revenue by other commissioners who aided wealthy tax evaders
in the country, many of whom were in partnership with the said commissioners
who have always viewed Commissioner Memo to be a threat to them.
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