Mr. Darboe made the remarks while addressing 30 GRA staffs at the official opening of a five-day training on Revenue Laws, organised by the Legal Department and Board Service of GRA supported by African French Development (AFD).
The training was held at Senegambia Beach Hotel on 27 November 2023.
CG Darboe hailed the GRA Legal Department for its resolve in training staff of various units and departments under GRA to be conversant with the revenue laws.
He disclosed that GRA would continue to encourage and motivate it staff for further learning to build their capacities in various areas on the revenue Law. He cited that currently GRA has many degree holders that help the Authority to organise in house training for its staff for effective service delivery in the execution of their duties.
According to CG Darboe, GRA would continue to mobilise resources to train more staff on revenue laws which is embedded in the Authority’s Strategic Plan of 2020 to 2024.
“The Authority as established by virtue of the GRA Act 2004 is primarily mandated to collect revenue on behalf of the government,” he emphasised, while underlining the importance of this training.
“We must recognize the important link between increasing our revenue collection and having the appropriate laws, and best practices generally acceptable by all civilized nations,” he told participants.
“As a Revenue Authority, we are tasked to ensure that enough revenues are collected to fund government programmes and other development agendas,” he stated.
“This means reflecting on the progressivity of our tax systems but also on the overall balance between all types of taxes,” he said. “The mobilisation of revenue is therefore critical in the development of our country.”
The Authority, CG Darboe added, would further strengthen and consoldate the specialised tax knowledge of the staff so that they could perform their functions effectively and efficiently.
“The main objective of this training is to ensure that staff of the Authority is involved in the administration of revenue with a better understanding of the laws they administer,” CG Darboe stated.
“I will use this opportunity to commend the French Development Agency, IMF, the World Bank, African Development Bank and all GRA partners for supporting GRA,” he concluded.
