How will you benefit

Influential leadership is not a one size fits all approach to leadership, but a matrix of interconnected elements that can be learnt and mastered.

At the beginning we contextualized why the change is needed.  Later on we discussed difference between internal and external influential leadership and which roles leader should take and implement. As tax administrations in the region are not isolated institutions and should cooperate among each other, we tackled main challenges of cross – border cooperation.

Learning modality of an open discussion devoted a lot of time for debate and enable learning from each other. 

What will you learn

Following topics were discussed:

• Strategic approach to changes

• Ensuring independence of tax administrations

• Setting goals, team leading, and  securing ownership

• Leading dialogue with taxpayers and building trustworthy relationship

• Demand from government to reduce compliance costs and costs for public administration 

• Adapting plans to changes in the progress

 

Who should attend

The roundtable was envisaged for general directors of tax administrations, their deputies and other senior management staff.

Faculty

Mateja Vraničar Erman

Mateja is working at the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia since 1993. From September 2016 until September 2018 she served as a Minister of Finance. Before that, since 2010 she was appointed several times as State Secretary, responsible for tax and customs policy and administration and fiscal matters. In that capacity she participated in merging tax and customs administrations into uniform Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia in 2014.Since 1993 until 2010 she held different positions within the Ministry of Finance, dealing primarily with broader tax and customs policy issues (introduction of VAT and Excise duties in the Slovenian tax system; introduction of the first Slovenian customs law, based on EU legislation; introduction of new taxes in the Slovenian legislation). She was a member of different teams, negotiating agreements with EU countries, membership of Slovenia to WTO etc. Before joining the Ministry of Finance, she was a junior official working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She holds a master degree (MPA) from Harvard University, JF Kennedy School of Government and bachelor in law degree from Ljubljana University, Faculty of Law.

Steffen Norman Hansen, former  IMF Revenue Administration Advisor for SEE

Steffen worked for the IMF and has been based at the CEF from June 2014 to July 2018. He worked with colleagues in national tax administrations in South East Europe, helping them to develop modern European tax systems and fighting against tax evasion, using good risk analysis. At the CEF, Steffen helped deliver learning programs related to his work. Before joining the IMF, Steffen was a Danish career administrator with a wealth of experience across all tax administration and customs components of revenue administration. 

Bert van den Boorn, Strategic Advisor at International Affairs Department, Tax and Customs Administration of the Netherlands​

Bert got a master in clinical Psychology and a bachelor in tax law and accountancy. His working career is full of change: he worked as a therapist, auditor, team manager, city Director and latest as a Director at the Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration (NTCA). At the moment he works for international projects funded by EU, Ministry of Foreign affairs and NTCA. Last year he was one of the speakers at the CEF workshop on leadership in Podgorica. 

Partners

This learning initiative was supported by: