Although no one likes criticism, Kenya Revenue Authority, fosters a culture that values feedback. Openness to negative feedback especially complaints requires a different culture and mind-set – not one of reprisal and fear, but one which is responsive to taxpayers’ dissatisfaction.

A complaint can be broadly defined ‘as an expression of dissatisfaction by a person, group, institution or organization about an unsatisfactory or unacceptable situation, including an act or omission or about the standard of service, whether the action was taken or the service was provided by the person(s), the institution itself or body acting on behalf of the institution’.

According to Brian Brewer in his Journal on Complaints Handling in the Public Sector, ensuring that public service complaints are handled effectively and rights of redress upheld, is an integral feature of good governance and effective service delivery. Similarly, KRA, as a government agent, endeavours to promote the values of transparency, accountability and good governance through effective complaints handling. KRA observes eight fundamental guiding principles for effective complaints handling and taxpayer satisfaction. These include: commitment, facilitation, customer-focused, responsiveness, fairness, learning, guidance and integrity.

The Authority affirms its commitment to achieving its mandate by continuously improving its organizational processes through staff training and benchmarking with other esteemed organizations with an exemplary record of accomplishment in adopting innovative and exceptional processes in complaints management. We treat complaints as a valuable source of information for continuous improvement and integrate the feedback we receive to inform our business processes and improvements. As a result, different reporting channels for lodging complaints and receiving feedback have been provided and are easily accessible to taxpayers. These channels include:

• Standard channel: Letters, email, and telephone
• Social media/online: Twitter, Facebook or the Official Website
• Walk-in: Visit any KRA offices countrywide to lodge a complaint

To maintain tax morale and quality of service, we have standard procedures and service charter that guide on the management of complaints and maintain impartiality in the resolution of complaints. We also have Complaints Management Team (CMT) at departmental levels and a Regional Management Committee to ensure all escalated complaints are effectively and efficiently resolved. To this end, KRA displays a high level of awareness of the value of complaints by submitting quarterly reports to the Commission on Administrative Justice (Office of the Ombudsman), who performs an oversight role in the resolution of public complaints.

Ultimately public service sector need to be accountable to the people they serve. They need to embrace and instil the new culture of Complaints Management at the fore. Complaints should be positively viewed as a chance to gain insight on how to improve business operations and drive innovation. As public servants, we need to embrace a citizen-centric approach in service delivery.

By Mary N. Njoroge

Complaints & Information Centre