AfricaPress-Tanzania: TANZANIA Revenue Authority (TRA) Deputy Commissioner General, Msafiri Mbibo has said failure to conduct a thorough assessment of corruption loopholes in the authority is hampering the fight against fiscal fraud.
Launching a three-day training for secretaries of integrity control committees in the authority, Mr Mbibo said TRA has identified a number of challenges, including failure to conduct a comprehensive assessment of corruption at the workplace as well as developing strategies to control the loopholes.
“By not having a thorough evaluation, and only coming up with superficial results… it makes the strategies we put in place not to help fight corruption loopholes,” he said adding, “the incidences have thus been recurring.”
The deputy commissioner general was concerned that there has been unsatisfactory management of ethics and gross violation of code of conduct among the employees that has also affected provision of tax education to taxpayers.
He blamed the secretaries for not holding meetings and for delaying quarterly reports, saying it is high time each member of the committee adhered to agreeable responsibilities to help address corruption in tax administration.
Mr Mbibo said, TRA, through the internal affairs department, had resolved to organize the training to help improve capacity among secretaries of integrity control committees.
TRA plays a sensitive role in tax collection—the main source of government revenue. It believes the role cannot be carried out effectively without honest staff, as well as a strong system that manages integrity.
The committees were formed primarily to uphold the ethics of employees at the workplace and create the concept of integrity as an employee’s character but not a theoretical practice.
TRA Acting Director of Internal Affairs, Amiram Lekey said the Authority had formed the committees at various levels – institutional, district and tax centers to implement the Strategic Plan for Combating Corruption Phase III which started in 2017 and ends in 2022.
“The aim of the strategy is to reduce corruption by using anticorruption measures, especially in high-risk sectors including the Tanzania Revenue Authority,” he explained.
Mr Lekey added that the training would help secretaries execute their responsibilities which include implementing the national anti-corruption strategy phase III.
