Monrovia, Liberia – James Dorbor Jallah, the Commissioner General of the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), and the Deputy Commissioners for Administration and Technical Affairs vowed over the weekend to implement institutional reform and adhere to established policies that will improve transparency, instill confidence in employees, uphold integrity, and increase revenue collection.
In their individual statements, the LRA executives stressed that the organization functions as a professional organization with strong regulations and SOPs that preserve its standards and distinguish it. They pledged to follow these guidelines while spearheading initiatives to reach national income goals.
These pledges were made by the authorities during a three-day review of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and important policies of the LRA. In order to make sure that internal procedures efficiently support the LRA’s efforts to collect legitimate income, the Enterprise Design, Quality Assurance & Results Division (EDQARD) organized this strategic assessment.
The LRA currently maintains over 100 SOPs and policies, many of which were established between 2016 and 2018. According to Thomas Jallah, Manager of the Enterprise Design and Results Section (EDRS), the review focused on essential SOPs, including those on taxpayer return processing, HR staff rotation, and logistics management, to align them with current operational needs and challenges.
The Division will work with the SOP owners to develop process flows for each new and modified SOP in response to the recommendations and engagements of the stakeholders, according to Niasehkar Glausea, Assistant Commissioner of EDQARD. This will make comprehension and compliance simple.
Samuel Bennett, Jr., Deputy Commissioner General for Administrative Affairs, praised the participants’ commitment and encouraged them to approach the talks with a purpose as they work to improve these important policy papers. “We are on solid ground; let’s keep moving forward together,” he said.
Gabriel Y. Montgomery, the Deputy Commissioner General for Technical Affairs, spoke to the group and affirmed his support for updating these SOPs and policies to reflect current circumstances. In order to expedite the processing of taxpayer returns, he underlined the necessity of tight coordination with the banking system. He pointed out that the SOPs and rules will improve LRA’s operations and spur revenue development if they are carefully constructed and strictly adhered to.
Commissioner General Jallah, meanwhile, commended EDQARD for bringing together internal stakeholders to have these important conversations and bring the LRA’s policies into line with modern realities, such as digitization. He emphasized that the emphasis should be on more than just drafting or revising rules; in order to get the intended results, everyone must constantly follow these guidelines. “We have to be disciplined and uphold the standards we set. To create the SOPs and policies that propel our performance, we turn to you, the professionals,” Jallah said.
The executives said that the updated SOPs and policies will be submitted for approval to the new LRA board. These regulations will be put into action when they are approved in order to increase revenue collection and the efficiency of LRA operations.
At the end of the three-day event, attendees suggested reengineering a number of policies, such as staff rotation, staff secondment, asset disposal, work incentives, and staff professional ethics investigations, with the goal of increasing accountability and transparency while accelerating revenue collection.
