The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has called on institutions both public and private to provide codes of ethics and conduct for their employees to help ensure good governance and zero corruption.

It said in addition, the institutions and the general public must provide the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) the necessary cooperation to enable it perform all its statutory functions effectively.

A statement issued in Accra on Monday by Mr. Vitus Azeem, Executive Director of the GII and copied to Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the Executive and Parliament must give the GRA management the necessary resources to carry out their statutory and professional mandate and for the enforcement of the GRA Code; while government, politicians and people in positions of trust and influence must resist from interfering with the enforcement of the GRA Code of Ethics and Conduct.

"The Government, politicians and other people in positions of trust and influence must abstain from interfering in tax administration and allow the GRA to perform its statutory and professional roles properly," it added.

The GII recommended that government must ensure that it accounted for tax revenues in a transparent way and that there was efficiency and value for money in the use of tax revenues, adding "This is a basic democratic pre-requisite for voluntary compliance with tax laws".

It said government had a duty to provide Ghanaians with appropriate tax policies that would generate the required revenues for the country’s development agenda while not unduly penalising its citizens.

"These policies should aim at engendering voluntary compliance in meeting tax obligations on the part of tax payers."

Last June, the GRA launched its Code of Ethics and Conduct in Accra and the GII said it was important for an institution like the GRA that rendered public service to take the bold step of producing the code and launching it as a public event.

It said code of ethics and conduct sought to institute institutional trust in an organisation, therefore, in the case of the GRA, it was necessary for Ghanaians to have trust and confidence in the institution as an accountable and trusted revenue collection agency.

The statement said the code also serves as a vital guide to all employees in their decisions and actions not only at the work place, but also their behaviour outside the work environment.

"A tax officer, who visits the residence of tax payers in his leisure time for whatever reason, does not receive the due respect of a tax official. The code of conduct should also serve as an effective and supporting tool for management to discipline employees, especially where there is the potential for political interference."

GII pointed out that a code of ethics or conduct was not a panacea in itself for addressing issues of integrity and corruption in an organisation, but that its effectiveness depended on the extent to which management supported them with sanctions and rewards.

It said the code must apply to all employees no matter their level, place of origin and/or perceived political affiliation, which required a bold management to enforce it without fear or favour.

It added that management must be bold enough to stand up to any political authorities, who would try to interfere with the work of the GRA.

The staff, particularly the workers unions, the GII said, must support the management in this regard.

It said the management’s duty must be to ensure that the GRA effectively played its role as the government’s revenue collection institution and that included ensuring that appropriate tax laws were not only in place, but properly enforced.

The GRA, the GII said should go further to assist the policy unit of the MOFEP in identifying and plugging gaps in tax policies and laws so as to make it easy for the GRA to implement them.

The GRA code requires that employees declare their assets and liabilities in compliance with the Public Office Holders (Disqualification and Asset Declaration) Act, 1998 (Act 550).

However, the GII in the statement said, the code must go beyond and include the random monitoring of the lifestyles of employees, who lead suspicious lives.

It added that it was not only necessary to monitor the lifestyles of GRA employees, but also the lifestyles of tax payers to ensure that more taxpayers were covered by the tax net and that all taxpayers paid appropriate taxes and avoid the misuse of their discretion on tax matters.

The GII stressed the need for the code of conduct to be disseminated widely to the general public to enable them demand their rights and report cases of extortion and other acts of impropriety.

It said the GRA must set up an ethics desk to address ethics issues and other complaints from taxpayers.

These complaints must be promptly addressed, including refunds of extortions and overpayments of taxes by tax payers, as well as sanctions of the officers found to be culpable.

The GII called on the government to play its appropriate role of providing the country with an appropriate tax system and policies that were realistic and workable, as well as a transparent and accountable use of the tax revenues.**