Impact of the Fifth Phase Tanzanian Government Leadership in Promoting Integrity of Public Organizations – A Case of Tanzania Revenue Authority-Temeke Tax Region
Keywords:
Leadership, Change, Integrity, Government, InfluenceAbstract
For a number of years the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has been reported to condone various malpractices including fraud, bribery, conflict of interest, favoritism and other wrong doings that impact negatively effective revenue collections. Due to these problems, the Tanzanian government leadership, at different phases, has been striving to enhance integrity in TRA by taking a number of legal and administrative measures. This study assessed the impact of the Fifth Phase Tanzanian Government’s Leadership in promoting integrity of employees in TRA - Temeke Tax Region. It aimed at establishing the effect of the actions of the Fifth Phase Government on the integrity of employees; assessed the measures taken by the fifth phase government; the effectiveness of the measures and the challenges faced in promoting integrity of employees in TRA. The study deployed mixed method approach of both qualitative and quantitative research whereby 130 respondents were involved; 94 being taxpayers and 36 TRA employees who were obtained through random, purposeful and snowball sampling. Data was collected through questionnaires, supplemented by documentary reviews and interviews. The findings revealed that the fifth phase government has improved integrity of TRA employees by reducing the level of corruption through: leadership commitment and political will; automation; enforcement of ethics and anti-corruption laws and regulations; investigations; disciplinary actions against corrupt employees; and change of TRA leadership. Despite of the improved integrity, some challenges identified in promoting integrity in TRA include: high tax rates, low morale and motivation by TRA employees, high monopoly and discretionary powers by tax officers, ignorance of tax laws by taxpayers and complexity of tax laws and procedures.
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