An example of such an effort can be seen in the Revenue Administration Modernization Project  (RAMP) for Romania whereby the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (NAFA) is partnering with the World Bank to increase effectiveness and efficiency in the collection of taxes and social contributions. When fully developed RAMP will increase tax compliance and reduce the administrative burden on taxpayers as they try to meet their responsibilities under the tax laws.

According to CEF Associate Fellow Norman Gillanders, the RAMP project can be regarded as the blueprint for a new and better NAFA and if implemented successfully will allow NAFA to step forward into the ranks of the best modern tax administrations delivering increased tax revenues more efficiently and with less intrusion into the affairs of compliant businesses. To make this vision succeed, however, significant change in how NAFA operates is inevitable.

“To begin with, there must be a way of prioritizing risks and specifying the resources and approaches needed to reinvent NAFA for the modern world. All large organizations need open and effective governance to decide priorities and then to make specific people personally accountable for the delivery of these priorities. In NAFA's case, success will depend on the new management committee set up this year to provide better governance using documented procedures and structures to guide reform. This means identifying the senior managers responsible for each business procedure and requiring them to take responsibility for delivery of each new process, working with the RAMP team. Otherwise there is an unacceptable risk of delay, extra expense or even failure of key elements of RAMP.” says Mr. Gillanders.

In addition Mr. Gillanders is convinced that »when transitioning to a modern revenue service it will be also essential for NAFA management to explain to the thousands of staff what these changes mean for them. How will their work change? What training will be provided? At the most basic human level, people will want to know ‘will I still have a job and where will it be located?’ NAFA managers must reflect on these questions and be ready to present clear answers to staff using every possible communications channel. This will not be a one-off event but a process going on for a number of years until RAMP has done its work. Similarly, there will be a need to speak to taxpayers, especially businesses and their professional advisors about new procedures and their impact on tax forms and on the business IT systems used to prepare tax declarations.«

Such reform projects generally show the need for comprehensive human resource and training strategies that fully support the tax administration’s business strategy. In this context, the CEF will continue to work closely with Mr. Gillanders, its constituency representatives (including Romanian tax officials) and its network of content experts and partners. Our aim will be to design high-quality, practical and participant-centered learning initiatives which guide our students towards the standards set out in the EU Fiscal Blueprints and the new TADAT benchmarks. We invite you to consult our webpage http://www.cef-see.org/events for the most up-to-date list of learning initiatives and application procedure.