SPEECH BY MR. WANKIE B. WANKIE

VICE – CHAIRPERSON OF THE BOTSWANA UNIFIED REVENUE SERVICE (BURS)

BOARD OF DIRECTORS AT THE INDUCTION OF NEW MEMBERS

OF THE BURS MAIN BOARD AND BOARD COMMITTEES

PHAKALANE: 17^TH NOVEMBER 2016

Director of Ceremony

Members of the BURS Board and Board Committees

Commissioner General Morris and Members of the BURS Executive Management

Board Secretariat

Facilitator from SADC – DFRC

Staff of BURS here present

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A very good morning!

1. It gives me great pleasure to have the opportunity to speak to you on the occasion of the induction of the BURS Main Board and Board Committee members.   

2. It is gratifying to note that in spite of the other commitments that these members have, they have found it fit, to dedicate part of their time to serve in the BURS Board. For some of the members, serving in the BURS Board comes as part of their jobs in the Ministries that they serve. These are officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, the Ministry of Investment Trade and Industry and the Bank of Botswana; who are required to serve in the BURS Board as ex-officio members.

3. BURS is one of the biggest Semi-Autonomous organisations in Botswana; and it is established to administer and enforce the revenue laws. The primary mandate of BURS is to mobilise revenue for the development of Botswana. 

4. You must agree with me that, with the current economic outlook, both locally and internationally, this is not a simple mandate to achieve. A lot of great things are therefore expected from you. As the Board and Board committee members, you will be expected to steer BURS to newer and greater heights; to come up with innovative ideas to increase the tax base and to help come up with strategies to do that in a proficient and cost-efficient manner. To do this, you will have to put in long hours of work; and be prepared to serve at awkward hours.

5. The BURS Board is established in terms of the BURS Act. No. 17 of 2004, as the governing body of the Revenue Service and is responsible for the direction of the affairs and operations of the Revenue Service.

6. The BURS Act empowers the Board to appoint committees of a general or special nature, consisting of such number of members, with such qualifications, as the Board may determine.  To that end, the BURS Board has 3 committees; the Board Human Resources Committee (BHRC), the Board Finance and Audit Committee (BAFC); and the Board Tender Committee (BTC).

7. The requirement to have Board committees is borne out of the fact that, for practical purposes, Board Committees, being smaller, can go into greater detail and deal with complex issues which the full Board might not have adequate time for. The importance of Board Committees cannot therefore be overemphasised; they are a mechanism to assist the Board in giving detailed attention to specific key areas of the Board’s duties and responsibilities.

8. As you know, the powers and functions of the BURS Board are to:

• Give direction to the Commissioner General in connection with management, performance, operational policies and implementation of such policies;
• Approve such organisational structures as the Commissioner General may consider necessary for the discharge of the functions of the Revenue Service;
• Approve such administrative measures as may be required to safeguard tax revenue;
• Approve a code of conduct for the Revenue Service; and
• Determine and appoint, on the recommendation from the Commissioner General, Revenue Commissioners, Heads of Departments and other senior management personnel.

9. The Board shall not intervene in the determination of any tax assessment, tax liability of, or tax appeal by, any taxpayer.

10. In order to carry out its mandate, the Board may direct the Commissioner 

General to furnish it with any information, report or other document which the Board considers necessary for the performance of its functions. I must clarify however, that the requirement to give the information, is subject to provisions of confidentiality provided in the revenue laws; to ensure that information given does not disclose the identity of taxpayers that the Revenue Service deal with.

11. As part of good governance, the BURS Board adopted a Charter to regulate its business. The Charter was adopted in 2011. The Board also adopted Terms of Reference and Regulations for the different Board Committees. We also have, a Code of Conduct and Conflict of Interest Policy, to promote the ability to make impartial and unfettered decisions.

12. To gauge our effectiveness, we have, as a Board, started to have self-assessments, every other year; to determine whether our mandate as a Board is being achieved, to identify gaps and close them. As a result of these self-assessment exercises, we have just concluded an exercise to review and revise the BURS Act.

13. Since the BURS Act was promulgated 12 years ago, it has not been amended to keep abreast with the general tone of new legislation establishing Parastatals. As such, some areas of the Act were found not to be adequate to serve as a vehicle for improving the general administration and enforcement of laws by BURS.

The proposals for amendment have been forwarded to the Ministry of Finance to give instructions to the office of the Attorney General to draft a Bill for the amendment of the BURS Act. Some of the proposed amendments are to:

• Increase membership and skills in the BURS Board;
• To increase representation from the private sector;
• To cap the tenure of Board membership and promote independence of members; and
• To allow for more participation at committee levels to assist in the execution of Board responsibilities.

15. We just recently, in June, concluded another self-assessment exercise, the report of which will be shared with all Board and Board Committee members. Some of the issues that emerged from the exercise relate to the need to have a Code of Ethics and whether or not we need to have a signed Charter. Another issue that arose was whether as a Board, we have specific meetings dedicated to dealing with the performance of the BURS Strategic Plan.

16. This is to say to us, that we must, if need be, be prepared to look into these areas and review our charter and code of conduct. Further, we might be required to look at the scheduling of our Board meetings and determine whether we need to introduce themed meetings, so that matters such as the execution of the strategic plan; are not dealt with as side issues, and introduce dedicated meetings to deal with the performance in relation to the BURS Strategic Plan.

17.  As you might be aware, the BURS Board has approved a 5 year Corporate Strategic plan spanning from 2014-2019. In 2015, we adopted a Transformation Agenda to focus the Strategy on our Customers, Employees, Culture and Communication. The strategic Plan is currently being reviewed to determine how BURS has performed in relation to the implementation of the Plan and to review progress made over the past two and half years.

18. The other recent developments in BURS are:

• The development of standards for Change and project management;
• The review of the Organisation and Pay Structure to enable the attraction and retention of the right personnel. BURS is currently negotiating the structure with the recognised Union, following which the structure will be implemented.
• Approval of an implementation of a revised Performance Management System; and
• The introduction of E-Services and new Customs and Tax Management systems.

19. All of these mean that you have your work cut out for you and I have confidence that you will be able to deliver on the mandate of BURS.

20. The journey of the BURS Board is not without challenges. Some of the challenges that we face as a Board are:

• Inability to get representation from the private sector in the Board;
• Slow developments in ICT Governance in spite of handling confidential information in the Revenue Service;
• Attraction and retention of skilled personnel, such as from the I.T and Legal sectors.
• Inadequate remuneration of Board members

21. As Chairperson of the BURS Board, I believe that as the new broom; you will re-invigorate other Board and Board committee members and work with them to help BURS achieve greater heights. 

22. Ladies and gentlemen, with these remarks, I thank you all for your attention.