From October 7 to 11, 2024, WCO experts, with the support of the Sida-WCO TFCMP Programme, convened with Office Burundais des Recettes (OBR) representatives in Bujumbura, Burundi. The purpose was to jointly assess OBR's anti-corruption and integrity promotion strategies, aligning them with WCO's tools and instruments for integrity. At the opening, Mr. Sébastien Rurimbuka, Director of Customs and e-Business Services, who represented the Commissioner of OBR Customs and Excise, recalled that ethics and integrity are at the core of OBR’s priorities and underlined the relevance of the objectives of the assessment activity, focused on evaluating the integrity strategy and associated action plans, and identifying the areas of progress to support change at the OBR for a modern and efficient administration, in line with the ten key factors of the WCO Revised Arusha Declaration.  “Integrity is a prerequisite for tax citizenship and elements of its monitoring have been put in place by the OBR Management and are updated periodically to respond to the evolving context,” Mr. Rurimbuka noted at the end of his speech.

To fully identify the needs of OBR and its external stakeholders (users, private sector) in terms of integrity, the WCO experts invited the participants to reflect on the strengths, improvement points and priority actions, and  identify performance indicators for each area , allowing to measure the efficiency of the actions and measures envisaged. The discussions made it possible to link the contributions and conclusions to specific expected results and measurable indicators thanks to the practical work and active participation from the group. The level of interaction and achievement from the workshop reflects the high-level commitment of the OBR General Directorate to support the development and integration of integrity priorities in the deployment of the 2024-2027 Strategic Plan.

For more information on this activity, you can contact the WCO at the following address: capacity.building@wcoomd.org