Empleos en el PNUD

The Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) is a semi-autonomous agency established through the Revenue Authority (RA) Act of 2008. The SRA administers a wide range of legislation related to tax and customs. It has its own Governing Board appointed under the aegis of the RA Act and as such, it is similar to the many other Revenue Authorities that have been established across Africa in the last 20 years. The SRA has been implementing a tax-type business approach since its establishment, however it is now moving towards a function-based organisation. This involves integrating the tax types to ensure that common functions are managed in one place to deliver a consistent, comprehensive and customer centric service to the taxpayers.  The new structure for the function-based organisation has the Commissioner General (CG) who is the CEO, with the following 4 (four) additional departments that constitute the executive: Domestic Taxes, Modernisation, Customs and Financial and Corporate Services. The Information Communication Technology (ICT) division is under the Financial and Corporate services division. The vision of SRA is ‘‘to be a modernized, credible and customer centric Revenue Authority’’. The mission of SRA is ‘‘to provide an efficient and effective revenue and customs administration, driven by a professional and motivated staff, that promotes compliance through fair, transparent, and equitable application of the law’’.

The purpose of the SRA is to mobilize increased revenues for Government and ensure that funds are available to finance Swaziland’s public services. To achieve this, the SRA developed four strategic focus areas:  Cost Effectiveness:  To collect the required revenue effectively, efficiently and to manage the cost of doing business whilst building a financially sustainable organization.  Customer and Stakeholder Centricity: To deliver customer and stakeholder focused organization. Human Capital Development: To attract, retain and build capacity of our staff to meet our revenue, operational and strategic objectives. Modernization: To develop an effective institutional framework that promotes adoption of best practices that facilitate correct, uniform and consistent administration of revenue laws/legislation and ease of doing business with and within SRA.

The organization’s core values are Performance Excellence, Customer Service and Innovation. The SRA strategic direction is anchored by supporting behaviours which will include amongst others: Integrity, Honesty, Transparency and Accountability.

ICT is an integral part of SRA administration and operations. SRA needs an ICT strategy for a modernised Revenue Authority encompassing all areas of administration, business and communication impacted by ICT. There is already a lot of ground covered in the following areas which are briefly described: infrastructure, business and corporate systems as well as business continuity. Infrastructure: SRA has standardized on Intel architecture for Desktop and laptops, including servers. Recently acquired blade-server technology with VMware for both primary and Disaster Recovery (DR) sites. Network and Communications: SRA has chosen wired and wireless LANs linked by WAN links provided by the telecoms provider. Backup links are available using the 3G network. Fibre links connect the DR site to the primary site. Network equipment is also standardized. Regarding business continuity the institution has developed a data center and development of a DR site is under way. Business and Corporate systems: Microsoft windows operating systems (server & client) and Microsoft office suite have been adopted for productivity including share point for intranet and collaborative work. An Integrated Finance Management System using Sage Accpac for finance is in the second phase of implementation. An Integrated Revenue Administration System (IRAS) is in phase 1 implementation for domestic taxes (includes VAT, Income taxes etc) and other revenues. Asycuda++ system is used for customs.

The Technical Assistance is required to develop the SRA ICT strategy which covers the analysis, capturing documentation of SRA business needs, identifying strategic ICT initiatives and plans aligned to the SRA overall strategy. The ICT strategy should also incorporate the Electronic Content Management strategy.

The objective of the assignment is to analyse the SRA ICT business needs (both strategic and operational), assess the current ICT division current plans, human capital and then develop an ICT strategy aligned with the SRA overall strategy for the next 3 years.

• Review background material provided prior to embarking for Swaziland to gain an understanding of the present situation in SRA including reports on the Document Management System project.
• Review the existing ICT and communications systems that have been inherited by SRA (principally ENTIRE, ASYCUDA++ and shared network) and comment on their current status in line with SRA’s corporate objective and current business environment.
• Review SRA divisional/departmental objectives with reference to their ICT requirements.
• Conduct consultations with the Government Ministry of ICT; FSE-CC and Private Sector.

Produce  ICT Strategy that incorporates or takes into consideration the following:

• Divisional/departmental and corporate needs
• The ICT Department staffing structure and resourcing requirements including training
• Effective and secure  communications infrastructure and application systems
• ICT policies, standards and procedures
• Electronic document management strategy
• Data warehousing
• Business continuity (Redundancy and disaster recovery)
• Technological changes going forward.
• Develop a project implementation timeline of the ICT Strategy. The plan should have clearly indicated itemized costs.
• Any other recommendations that will strengthen the work of the SRA ICT Department

Deliverables.  

• Comprehensive ICT Strategy document for SRA covering the next three (3) year period
• Action plan with timeframe for the implementation of the ICT Strategy
• Indicative costing of the various elements of the ICT Strategy that will allow for financial planning to take place.
  

• Excellent analytical, organizational and inter-personal skills
• Excellent oral, and effective presentation and report-writing skills
• Ability to think strategically
• Demonstrate ability to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing with a wide range of people;
  

Education:

• BSc. in Computer Science; BA in Information Systems or equivalent qualification. A Masters Degree in Computer Science / Information Systems will be an added advantage.

Experience:

• Seven (7) years experience in ICT consulting specifically in IT strategy development
• Demonstrated strong ICT background, experience and capacity in the implementation of tested technology solutions.
• Must have developed ICT/IT strategy for at least two Revenue Authorities

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English.
• Excellent report writing skills

NOTE:   Qualified female candidates are encouraged to apply.