3RD Senior Management Development Program for Kenya Revenue Authority

In October/November 2007, CCES Associate Director Alan Murray and Creck Buyonge, the Manager, CCES – Africa delivered the 3^rd Senior Management Development Program (SMDP) for Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) at the Voyager Hotel, Mombasa.

The purpose of the SMDP was to develop leadership, managerial skills and knowledge of the managers of the KRA, thereby assisting them to implement major reform initiatives with an emphasis on effective change management and organizational sustainability. Most of the 19 participants in the nine-day course were from the Domestic Taxes Department, and were all senior or middle level managers with operational or administrative responsibilities at headquarters or in the regions. The rest of the participants were from Human Resources, Road Transport, Investigations & Enforcement, Internal Audit, ICT, Administration and Customs Services Departments.  

KRA Commissioner General M. G. Waweru officially opened the course. He expressed appreciation for the impact that the previous programs had had on the organization.

“An independent survey by the Australian Agency for International Development and internal reports indicates that the participants were implementing reforms effectively,” Mr. Waweru said.

KRA’s reform and modernization program aims at building the capacity of its human resources to implement reform, improving service delivery, streamlining business processes and enhancing revenue collection. Due to its robust integrity development effort based on the principles of the World Customs Organization’s Revised Arusha Declaration and implementation of the Kenya Government’s Public Service Integrity Program, KRA was not listed in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index for 2007.

The course inter alia identified the challenges posed to KRA by developments in the international environment, examined application of risk management concepts to strategic and operational aspects of the work of a revenue agency and assisted the participants develop a sound understanding of the concepts of change management, including leadership, reform planning, reform implementation and organizational change as they apply to a revenue administration.

 The participants specifically liked the syndicate group discussions which gave them an opportunity to examine various issues from their own experience in the light of global best practices. A number of them said that they would have wanted to see a similar program that brings together managers from various regional revenue administrations.

Alan Murray making a point