Determinants of Optimal Revenue Collection in County Governments in Kenya

Following the establishment of devolved governments, the county governments are expected to collect their own revenue to mitigate between allocation of revenue from central government and their own budget. Optimal revenue can be understood as the maximum amount of revenue, which can be collected during a financial year, therefore when the County Governments fail to optimally collect requisite revenues, the public will negatively be affected by being denied vital services and ultimately poverty will continue to grow among the citizens especially in the rural areas. The devolved system of government indeed has great promise but will have little to show unless surgical changes are made in order to benefit from a fully functional revenue collection system. This independent study sought to determine the extent to which accounting procedures are applied, whether budgetary allocations affect optimal revenue collection and the effect of competence of employees on optimal revenue collection in the County Governments. The study is anchored on optimal theory on taxation and revenue forecasting and budgeting theory in its theoretical framework. The methodologies involved in the various studies will also be looked into.