Since July 2013, the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) has been benefiting from the support of the WCO-WACAM Project, funded by Sweden, in the field of Human Resource Management (HRM).
Through this support, the GRA was able to develop a HR Strategy, a new recruitment policy and its associated manual of procedures and also develop new competencies in terms of recruitment techniques. Furthermore in the last six months, the GRA intensified its efforts to upgrade and finalize all necessary tools to implement a modern competency-based HRM approach, namely the Job Catalogue, the Competency Framework, the Dictionary of Competencies and all Job Descriptions (over 140) from the officer to director level.
The Job Descriptions were drafted by the GRA HRM Working Group, which is representative of all technical, operational and support services. In order to quality test the Job Descriptions and to initiate change management efforts, the GRA, with the support of 2 WCO HRM experts, presented the Job Descriptions to Managers, Senior Officers and Officers at key operational sites from the 8th to the 12th of February; 2 Customs Offices at major locations (Banjul Sea Port and customs post of Amdalai at the border with Senegal) and at the Brusubi Tax Office focusing mainly on small and medium tax payers. The feedback from the pilot sites was positive.
Based on this competency assessment and on parallel work on the formulation of a training strategy, the GRA, through the support of the WCO-WACAM Project, will be able to develop a robust induction programme by the end of the year.
During this support mission, the GRA also showcased its HRM progress to the Ministry of Finance and the National Personnel Management Office. Both of these national institutions have called upon GRA to impart their new HRM competencies and lessons learned with them in the near future. As a result, a working sessions with these institutions will take place in the upcoming weeks to ensure greater harmonization in HRM modernization efforts at the national level.
For more information about this support mission or on the WACAM Project, do not hesitate to contact the WCO-Sweden Programme Director, Richard Chopra (Richard.chopra@wcoomd.org).