Dr. Samuel Jibao, NRA Boss
By Albert Baron Ansu, Consulting Editor, 079409779
The government of President Julius Maada Bio must not be tangled in the proverbial catch 22. We are talking about wanting to maximize revenue in the context of our constricted economic GDP that hardly meets the demands of responding to the mammoth challenges; by sacrificing best practice at the altar of parochial self-serving interest.
In the situation where political considerations have taken center stage to get those amenable to the political ethos of a ruling government appointed in key positions, there is the flip side of that coin that is a critical drawback to increasing tax revenue collection.
What is the risk of appointing square pegs in round holes in serving political expediency at the expense of political soundness? The risk is huge and can be counter-productive to national interest.
This is the point that the World Bank has been pushing. Dr. Samuel Jibao should take note of this caveat:
Building administrations that effectively limit incentives and opportunities for rentseeking and inappropriate behavior, and are capable of implementing the voluntary compliance needed to extend the tax base, including by risk management (allocating resources where the risks to revenue are greatest) and taxpayer segmentation (tailoring intervention and services to the distinct challenges posed by different groups, starting with a large taxpayer office)—here much remains to be done, but positive results have been seen…
The foregoing must be unbundled to make the connection with what is about to happen at NRA.
Now, if the rumour mill about some ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party stalwarts in the Authority is surreptitiously writing names of perceived and real political opponents to be fired or sidelined is anything to trust, then what is the underline motive for that drive?
The answer can be figure out. It is a means of politically rewarding individuals based on political loyalty. This is anchored on a warp logic- let me post to a supposed lucrative area those staffers that are pliant and loyal to me…they will routinely divert money for my self-aggrandizement.
Here is a comment on that line of thought: It becomes a rent seeking behavior that undermines the wider political interest in raising revenue be relying on diligent and professionally efficient staffers with the experience and training on the extant systems. It is also a means of sabotaging the grand objective of increased revenue creating disaffection and mediocrity in the work place. Any head at NRA that submits to this backward way of doing things is bound to fall out with President Bio, whose avowed intention of creating the right conditions for the country to propel above the yearning for the delivery of basic amenities to sustainable growth.
So the political lens must not be worn by the new NRA boss in doing his postings of personnel. Each staffer at the National Revenue Authority must have a work history to be retraced and serve as the basis of retention or redeployment using fair standards.
Maybe there could be need for recruitment of new staff but that must not be done by axing hard working staffers because they are suspected or obviously not supporting the ruling party. This is not the progress way to proceed. The national interest based on fair standards over-rides the partisan interest. And this is what the World Bank has posited for developing countries as ours.
“More fundamentally still, the centrality of taxation in the exercise of state power means that more efficient, fairer, and less corrupt tax systems can spearhead improvement in wider governance relations. This is according to IMF Policy Paper on Revenue Mobilization in Developed Countries…” https://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2011/030811.pdf
We are watching with keen interest what is happening with the NRA postings to ascertain the veracity or falsity of a bad rumour.
Those who Dr. Samuel Jibao have held brief for him already suggesting that he is principled and would not subscribe to gossips but to develop a strong team that is focus on the corporate goal of augmenting the gaunt revenue base. This clearly an acid test about his integrity a make and break opportunity for the new NRA boss to set into motion that which propel or reverse the gains there are or to be harnessed.