For a prosperous Africa, we need grounded institutions
Logan Wort explains how ATAF managed to grow into a continental platform by keeping its ears to the ground
When the African Tax Administration Forum was formally launched in Kampala, Uganda in November 2009, 22 African revenue authorities pledged their support for an international platform that would help improve the performance of tax administrations on the continent. Nine years later, these visionary ideas and ambitious desires have become a successful pan-African organisation.
Very early in the development of ATAF we realised, that for our work to be member-driven, the Forum will need to have more than formal pledges of the various African revenue authorities. Commissioners General who run these authorities have the daunting task of ensuring the efficient leadership of their institutions. Therefore, in the second year of ATAF, we saw the need to appoint focal points within our member countries to help us improve governance and delivery to our members; we called on every member tax administration to appoint an ATAF Country Correspondent.
The role of ATAF Country Correspondents is multifold. At one level they serve as champions of their respective tax administrations by informing ATAF of their country’s changing needs and challenges. At times, they will make formal requests for technical training or assistance, for relevant information or for specific interventions. The various tax authorities in Africa are at different levels of development. Their strengths and weaknesses are often unique to their respective countries. Country correspondents help ATAF understand what those specifics are.
At another level, they are the ambassadors who inform their authorities of significant ATAF events, new initiatives and projects. ATAF conferences, seminars, workshops, training sessions, research, and publications are effective tools developed by the organisation for its members and it is the Country Correspondent’s duty to ensure that their tax administration is aware of such tools and takes full advantage of them. Additionally, they regularly impress upon their authorities to ensure that ATAF membership fees are paid up.
Beyond being the pulse of the organisation, these representatives also make inputs on ATAF initiatives helping the Forum to adjust and improve training programmes, repackage interventions and even adjust our yearly work plans. In many ways, the country correspondent is the secret to ATAF’s growing success; they improve our delivery to member countries and keep the organisation grounded and realistic.
Since the notion of country correspondents was first introduced seven years ago,it has become customary for ATAF to hold an annual conference for delegates to table their country reports, inform participants of all the latest developments in the Forum, provide them with the necessary personal development to improve effectiveness and give them an opportunity to raise any insights and concerns that could improve our work.
In the beginning of 2017, for example, the sixth ATAF Country Correspondents Conference placed some of the following items on ATAF’s agenda:
• Delegates requested that ATAF increase the number of participants who can register for online courses;
• They called for the proper induction of new country correspondents;
• They impressed upon us the need to close the gap between policy makers and tax administrations;
• The importance of strengthening of current ATAF processes; and that
• Country correspondents be the central point of communication for all ATAF events.
The Forum paid serious attention to their concerns and many of these issues were incorporated into the work of ATAF and enriched the Forum’s activities and products for 2017. The High-Level Tax Dialogue: Forging the Nexus between Tax Policy and Tax Administration in Africa, which was held in Kampala, was an initiative that incorporated these concerns raised by that 2017 country correspondents conference.
This year, the Seventh ATAF Country Correspondents Conference in Johannesburg will be a mix of sessions ranging from (amongst others) conversations and exchange sessions with delegates; aligning ATAF’s annual activity calendar with country inputs; development sessions to improve the skills of country correspondents; and giving participants a global perspective of the latest tax developments as well ATAF engagements.
Tax administrations play a critical role in state building and in the promotion of economic development and good governance especially in developing countries. Effective, efficient and capable revenue authorities, able to mobilise domestic tax resources are essential if they are to provide governments with sustainable, domestically generated revenue. This will go a long way in reducing reliance on foreign investment and development aid and give African states the room to determine their own spending priorities in line with national objectives and socio-economic needs.
ATAF’s role is to bring African tax administrations together to co-operate; share information, best practices and skills to improve domestic revenue generation; building and strengthening capacity; and providing African countries with a united voice at international fora. Last year, 2017, ATAF had a successful year in helping its members bolster domestic taxes, stem illicit financial flows, various capacity building initiatives, research and though-leadership, the publishing of various key publications on taxation and widening the international reach of the Forum.
In addition, for 2017, ATAF was able to raise the revenues of its member countries by USD160 million as a result of our technical interventions; 13 ongoing Transfer Pricing country programmes; 6 ongoing Exchange of Information programmes; over 30 technical assistance missions conducted in 13 countries; over 150 African tax officials trained in various workshops; 44 tax officials graduated from ATAF’s Executive Masters in Taxation; and 10 experts from 6 African countries trained in Transfer Pricing.
None of this would have been possible without the active support and participation of ATAF’s member countries. And that support and participation was greatly enhanced by the active involvement of their representatives, their tax ambassadors, the ATAF champions: the country correspondent. They prove that the only way to turn theory into practice, deepen democracy and improve institution building is to have an organisation that keeps its ear to the ground.
- Logan Wort is the Executive Secretary of ATAF
- [For more information on ATAF click here.]
