KIERAN HOLMES’S early career in the Irish revenue service had not fully prepared him to take over as chief tax collector in Burundi, one of central Africa’s poorest countries. One of his first tasks was learning to use a pistol: getting companies to file returns in a country more accustomed to conflict and corruption can be dangerous. But it is not impossible. In 2010, the year before he took charge of the Office Burundais des Recettes (OBR), a new, autonomous tax agency, Burundi’s tax take was 300 billion Burundian francs ($240m). It has almost doubled since, to 560 billion francs.Mr Holmes’s first step was to recruit new staff to replace those who had worked in the old revenue division of the finance ministry. Entrance exams were marked by a hand-picked team in the basement of the new boss’s house to avoid any possibility of cheating. Only a handful of former tax collectors made the grade. The old revenue service had been a warren of closed doors and private rooms; it was replaced with an open-plan office.Graft has not disappeared along with the walls: the authority still fires a dozen or so employees...
from The Economist: Finance and economics http://ift.tt/1jV6mca
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