The Commissioner General of the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), Hon. Yankuba Darboe, has pointed out that the GRA has taken revenue collection to a whole new level, surpassing the government’s revenue targets year in, year out.
Thanks to ambitious and visionary reforms as well as human resources capacity development, the GRA raised tax collection from six billion dalasi in 2017 to double digits of billions just a few years later.
Speaking in an hour-long interview with Coffee Time With Peter Gomez aired on Monday, CG Darboe said the GRA “is now galloping” when it comes to the execution of its core mandate.
The Gambia government this year set a revenue collet target of D23 billion for the GRA but the Authority has, as of November, mobilized D23.2bn and still counting.
“We are galloping in terms of what we are doing. We are not running, we are galloping,” Darboe said of the GRA’s revenue collection performance as he entreated for the maintenance of peace and stability in the country. The head of the Gambia’s main revenue collection agency underlined that taxes cannot be collected for development in the absence of peace and stability.
“We should treasure and maintain peace and stability because peace and stability bring everything. Today, businesses are coming from all over the world to invest in The Gambia because of the peace and stability,” Darboe emphasized before calling on all and sundry to guard the peace and stability in the country so that the GRA would be able to continue to collect the billions “we are collecting now”.
“I must thank the government for giving us the enabling environment for collection. And also the support from the President down to his Cabinet. Without the political will, we will not succeed in what we are doing. But with the kind of the political will we have, we are doing an excellent job and we want to continue that for the interest of the nation,” he stated.
The GRA boss also acknowledged the “pivotal” role of tax taxpayers in the Authority’s remarkable revenue performance.
Reforms
CG Darboe is leading the charge for the GRA’s transformational journey by introducing a raft of institutional reforms. These reforms, according to Hon. Darboe, are visionary and would be hopefully enduring for generations to come.
Darboe explained that the reform process is not a personal project but a national cause.
“Everything I’m doing, I’m trying to put up a structure, trying to see the capacities of my staff are developed so that these systems can be here for years and years,” he told Coffee Time With Peter Gomez.
“Every morning I wake up, I think about what is meaningful for the country. I do things and I see results. Every year that a target is given, we surpass it, we go beyond the target,” he added.
He went on to state that staff capacity development is the number one priority, explaining that when he took over as CG, he found only a fistful of graduates at the GRA but due to head-hunting and staff capacity enhancement, the GRA now has on its roll smart auditors, IT engineers among others.
“I am very good at trying to bring a team together. As such, I have 12 ACCA holders… I have over 10 qualified lawyers,” he revealed, adding that 200 university graduates are now working in the Authority.
“Right now, we have over 200 graduates. I’m preparing a team,” said the GRA boss.
