WB recommendations for HRM: no posting to new position without prior training

Sources told Business Recorder here on Saturday that the WB review mission has made some recommendations for the FBR to improve the Human Resource Management (HRM) and integrity of tax officials under the Tax Administration Reform Project (TARP).

According to the gist of key recommendations of aide-memoire of the WB review mission, the FBR should transfer no officer or staff to a new post if he/she has not been trained to use the IT applications required for the new position. Second, the FBR should prepare an implementation plan of the approved policy framework and establish responsibilities for completion of required activates. Third, the FBR should establish for each unit the staff to be assigned in each position according to the new job classification and consideration of workload. The FBR should also complete preparation of procedures for internal job posting, with competency requirements adapted to new job descriptions. Subsequently, the FBR should implement procedures with strict application of new rules.

On the issue of professional integrity and the code of conduct, the WB review mission has recommended that the FBR should ensure that supervisors have a critical role in enforcing the code of conduct. The FBR should also conduct administrative consultations at the relevant levels of government regarding the possibility of holding supervisors accountable where violation of integrity rules is detected in the case of a staff under their supervision.

About the issues relating to information technology, it has been observed that the field formations continue to report that they do not know about FBR's plans for new app1ications. The process used to introduce applications into the field should change. The Core Business Domain Team's effectiveness representing the business will be tested early. Moreover, the planned upgrade to the next release of ITMS needs to be co-ordinated with multiple wings. The response time experienced by the users of applications needs to be monitored and appropriate tuning undertaken.

The WB has recommended to FBR to adopt a policy that the plans for and the features of new applications will be announced to all field formations in advance--a 1-2 month lead time is suggested. The FBR should adopt a policy to require a field formation to undertake the end user testing and piloting of new application and significant changes to existing application. The Board should also adopt a standard procedure to involve the appropriate wings to develop the SOPs, general orders, user manuals and training material for new applications before releasing the new application to the field formation.

There should be 'Use the Business Domain Team' to define the requirements for the new enforcement systems (ie: taxpayer ledger, collections tracking, automated notice issuance and automated follow-up), the WB recommendations added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2011