The East Africa Revenue Authorities have a realised a total of $3,039,053.95 in revenue from tax evasion investigations for the periods between October 2023 and April 2024. This was announced during the 18th East Africa Revenue Authorities Technical Committee on Integrity (EARATCI) meeting under the theme Integrity and Revenue performance, hosted by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

Speaking at the engagement, the KRA Commissioner General Mr Humphrey Wattanga reiterated KRA’s commitment to mainstreaming integrity and values in all operations for effective revenue mobilization. “KRA continues to leverage technology to enhance the revenue administration, analyse tax information and gain a better view of the business and transaction space. Corruption fights back, mutates and with technology may become more complex. It is therefore critical for Revenue Authorities to be ahead of the curve in addressing tax integrity and combatting corruption,’ he said. The Commissioner General further added that KRA was committed to implement the strategic objectives of the EARATCI, through collaborative efforts, knowledge sharing and information exchange with the East African Revenue Authorities.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the EARATCI Mr James Abola of Uganda Revenue Authority stated that Revenue Authorities were required to conduct their activities transparently and be accountable to the Government and community. He said that for this year’s engagement, Members were keen to draw insights, share key learnings and progress resolutions around comprehensive integrity survey, data collection, the Regional corruption perception index measurement tool and the Regional investigation-training concept developed with the guidance of the African Tax Administration Forum.

The primary goal of the EARATCI is to continually identify initiatives that improve tax to GDP ratio, combat corruption, improve voluntary compliance, share information for investigations and promote integrity for enhanced revenue performance. Other initiatives implemented within the EARATCI include capacity building, informer rewards, proactive investigations, lifestyle audits, vetting and integrity testing.

The three-day engagement brings together delegates from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan Revenue Authorities. The EARATCI is a subcommittee of the east African Revenue Authority Commissioner Generals that held its first meeting in 2014 and has since held biannual engagements in April and October, to deliberate and share best practices on how to address issues of corruption.

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