- 8 Marks
Question
Revenue management is a challenge in many public organizations, including the Damsa District Assembly in which you are currently engaged as Finance Officer responsible for revenue management and control. There are rampant revenue losses resulting from delayed or unbanked collection, failure to assess and collect revenue, inappropriate use of value books, and poor record keeping, among others. Consequently, your Assembly has persistently failed to meet its revenue budget over the years and the Ministry of Local Government has recently cautioned the District Chief Executive (DCE) and tasked him to improve the revenue performance of the Assembly or face dismissal.
In a meeting with the DCE, he put it bluntly: “the Revenue Officer should do something about this immediately else I will fire him before I am fired. My head and your head are on the chopping board; you know it”.
Required:
As the Finance Officer responsible for revenue, describe FOUR revenue management and control measures you would put in place for the Assembly to remedy revenue losses pointed out in the case.
Answer
Revenue management and control measures to remedy revenue losses
i) Delayed or unbanked collection
- I would ensure that all revenues are banked immediately.
- One measure to achieve this is through an arrangement with banks to facilitate direct deposit by the payers into the bank account of the Assembly.
ii) Failure to assess and collect revenue
- All revenue payers should be identified and levied appropriately.
- Revenue collectors should be trained and motivated to perform their duties efficiently.
- Electronic means should be used to effect revenue collection.
iii) Inappropriate use of value books
- Security and custody of the value books should be ensured.
- Ensure that only approved value books acquired from Controller and Accountant General are used.
- The head of finance should ensure proper custody of stock of value books, and these value books should be issued out to only responsible staff. Proper records should be maintained for the issue of value books.
iv) Poor record keeping
- A responsible officer should be appointed for record keeping over revenue. The cash receipt book or transcript should be updated regularly. Implementing approved accounting software would be an effective measure to improve the record-keeping process.
(2 marks each for every point well explained = 8 marks)
- Tags: Control measures, Public Sector, Revenue losses, Revenue management
- Level: Level 2
- Topic: Public sector fiscal planning and budgeting
- Series: NOV 2017
- Uploader: Sarah