By Mustapha Jallow
As part of reforming process of its institution, staff of The Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) were on Monday trained on project and contract management that was prepared by an intentional consultant services.
The two-week intensive training was supported by World Bank Fiscal Management Project (GFMDP) which aims to bring GRA staff together and engage them about effective management of project and contract under the Authority.
The session was conducted by Ramsys Consulting Services, which is based in Accra, Ghana. However, Ramsys is a leading training and consulting firm that has been serving leading businesses in many countries.
Addressing the participants during the opening ceremony, Yankuba Darboe, the Commissioner General of GRA, hailed the Gambia Fiscal Management Development Project (GFMDP) under the World Bank for the support rendered to GRA in implementing its activities.
“Our institution (GRA) has been embarking on a number of reform programs in different areas, and these programs are being implemented through various projects,” he said.
According to CG Darboe, GFMDP/world bank is financing the acquisition and implementation of an integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) to replace the existing GAMTAXNET System.
“This will contribute to improving tax administration processes and GRA’s digital transformation,” he added.
GRA boss said it was deemed necessary to train the project Steering Committee and technical Team on Project and contract management, saying the purpose of this long-week engagement was meant to build the capacity of key staff of the GRA, especially those directly involved in the implementation of the Gambia Fiscal Management Development project.
GRA CG further expressed hope that at the end of the two week training, Staff nominated to participate in this session, will be exposed to project and contract management techniques, including tools used to ensure a project is delivered on time, within budget and to acceptable standards.
“The Firm contracted to conduct this training, RAMSYS, was carefully selected by the Reforms and Modernization Committee through a competitive bidding process,” he explained.
GRA boss went on to thank the consulting services in their reform journey but challenge them to deliver high quality training as expected and to be engaging the participants to ensure training is interactive.
For his part, Mr. Essa Jallow, the project Manager, who double as Deputy Commissioner General of GRA and head of domestic taxes, expressed his satisfaction for the consulting services who are engaging GRA staff again, adding their staff have benefited lot of training programs, especially in Ghana.
Mr. Jallow commended them for been very instrumental in assisting GRA in building the capacity of its staff, adding this was part of the activities in the 2021 work plan under the ITAS project supported by the World Bank to the tune of $13 million dollars.
“The project has the overarching objective of modernizing our tax administration for increased operational efficiency and effectiveness. This will encompass the re-engineering of our business processes so as to optimize them and also procure a new ITAS to replace the existing Gamtaxnet which has already outlived its usefulness,” DCG Jallow told participants.
He said the project will also anticipates improvements in the delivery of taxpayer services with the introduction of e-filing and e-payment facilities, all geared towards the facilitation of taxpayer compliance among other benefits associated with the implementation of this project.
Hence, GRA’s deputy commissioner general stated that one of the main objectives of the project is to enhance the capacity of GRA as far as domestic revenue mobilization is concerned.
