The Board of Directors and Management of the NRA mapped out the strategic direction of the Authority for the medium term onto 2017. The strategic plan which spans from 2013 to 2017 defines the strategic direction of the Authority which is expressed through four interrelated components/perspectives of how the Authority will prioritize its attention and resources to achieve its mandate. This strategic vision is not only reflective of lessons learnt over the past 10 years of our tax administration, but is also closely aligned with the country’s agenda for prosperity. With a modeled shift to enhanced efficiency and effectiveness through staff development, innovation and stakeholders’ collaboration, the Strategic Plan provides an integrated strategy that ensures cohesion of the facets of NRA’s operation towards effective revenue mobilisation.
The Authority’s strategic direction will be guided by four strategic goals:
The first strategic goal of the plan is to develop human capital and strengthen institutional and organizational capacity of the Authority including corporate governance. This is where we are committed to developing the skills levels and competencies of our workforce and motivate them to deliver through improved conditions of service. Developing a code of corporate governance, strengthening our integrity committee and improving our corporate social responsibility will be critical to achieving this goal.
The second goal of this strategic plan is to improve efficiency and effectiveness of our systems through modern technology. The aim here is to simplify our business processes in order to reduce compliance time and cost and increase the ease of doing business. Part of the strategy to achieving this goal is to continue with automation and to fully integrate tax administration systems across the NRA. The benefit of automation is not only seen in reducing transaction time and cost, but also in minimizing corruption through inbuilt audit trails in these systems.
The third strategic goal of the Plan aims to improve customer satisfaction and public confidence and trust in the Authority in a manner that would yield sustained results. We consider our customers (taxpayers and other stakeholders) most important and our key strategy will be skewed towards the provision of timely and quality services, ensuring collaboration with the public and engaging on information sharing to improve communication and key external relationships. Being transparent in our operations and tackling corruption and staff integrity have also been taken into consideration.
The fourth strategic goal is to maximise revenue mobilisation. Dependence on donor funding to undertake national development is sometimes unpredictability, problematic and unsustainable. There is Donor aid fatigue. That and the numerous and unrealistic conditionality’s associated with donor financing have made dependence on foreign resources less attractive.
With this Strategic Plan, we aim to:
- Improve equity in tax enforcement and administration.
- Improve public awareness, transparency and taxpayer service by continuously and constructively engaging with all stakeholders. Citizens must be aware of the taxes they are paying and be educated about the system of taxation and budgeting, while government must be transparent about tax collection and public spending to increase confidence in the country’s tax system.
- Broaden and improve direct taxation which is likely to increase awareness, enhance trust amongst taxpayers and enhance trust between taxpayers and the government, all of which are likely to make public engagement and tax bargaining more likely.
