In this interview, Richard Tusabe talks about the early challenges that the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) faced in terms of capacity building and reinvigorating the economy after the Rwandan genocide. He discusses the RRA’s methods to find skilled people outside the country for assistance, including engaging international partners and joining the East African Community to collaborate with other countries. Tusabe talks about the benefits of the RRA remaining outside the mainstream of public service as this allows the institution more flexibility compared to a bureaucracy. He emphasizes the importance of the RRA’s autonomy and zero-tolerance policy for corruption as well as the larger government’s endorsement of technology as an enabler. Tusabe also stresses the need to reduce the costs of filing tax to encourage people to leave the informal sector. He sheds light on the RRA’s methods of redeploying human resources after moving to an online system to better suit the institution’s needs. Tusabe talks about some of the remaining challenges of the RRA as losing staff to the private sector, and having a large informal sector, despite the government’s encouragement to move away from a cash economy. He describes the path forward for the RRA as using big data and analytics to monitor compliance, in line with the broader national shift towards having more mobile phone and internet penetration.  

Jesse Robredo discusses his tenure as mayor of Naga City, during which he significantly improved service delivery and public housing. He is credited with largely eradicating patronage politics as part of civil service. Robredo explains the problems he saw in Naga City immediately after taking office, the strategies he implemented to address them, and how he dealt with opposition to these changes. He focuses on the city government’s relationship with the Catholic Church, the use of eminent domain in building public housing, and the steps he took to fund reforms. Robredo then touches on public education issues and his relationship with national government during these reforms.    

Case Study:  Building Trust and Promoting Accountability: Jesse Robredo and Naga City, Philippines, 1988-1998 and Listening to the Public: A Citizen Scorecard in the Philippines, 2010-2014

Edward Larbi-Siaw describes in detail the process of tax administration reform in Ghana during the late 1980s.  First, the reform program sought to recruit highly skilled and diversified personnel that could raise to the challenges posed by the new taxation environment.  Larbi-Siaw describes alternative strategies to incentivize employment with the National Revenue Secretariat (NRS), including salaries matching those offered by the private sector and hierarchy adjustments aimed at providing in-demand scientists with ranks equal to those they would have at universities. This was possible only after the NRS was removed from the civil service to circumvent pay restrictions and rigid promotion systems.  Second, the secretariat was transformed into an agency through an institutional overhaul that involved the creation of departments specialized in research, internal operations, auditing, finance and human resources. Third, enhanced supervision and monitoring of revenue flow contributed to an increase in effectiveness and a reduction in corruption and malfeasance.  This was complemented by selective purges of corrupt or underperforming officials, with the notable exception of the operations core that remained largely untouched due to the strategic need to maintain the NRS running throughout the restructuring process and to minimize resistance.  Larbi-Siaw attributes the lack of generalized resistance to the reform to the support of the government, a consensus-building approach predicated on internal deliberation and consultation with other relevant agencies, and the successes of creative outreach efforts of the newly created NRS customer service and public relations departments. Nonetheless, there were two main sources of resistance. First, civil servants resented the retention of revenue to sustain high salaries at the NRS, which resulted in the abolition of retention and the drain of many qualified staff.  Second, public discontent over misused funds affected the NRS due to the inevitable link between revenue collection and expenditure. Information provision was key to transparency, and required extensive cooperation with the Ministry of Finance that could not always be secured due to intrinsic institutional conflict over jurisdictions.  Both factors also contributed to the considerable delay in integration of the revenue agencies—the Internal Revenue Service and the Customs, Excise and Preventive Services—despite a stated preference for a one-stop shop.  Finally, Larbi Siaw describes specific tax regulations that were introduced, highlighting the role of codification in the management of special interest groups that had previously been able to secure ad hoc exemptions.  

Case Study:  Professionalization, Decentralization, and a One-Stop Shop: Tax Collection Reform in Ghana, 1986-2008