Heads roll at Inland Revenue Department

 Tuesday, 25 February 2014 

Several senior changes have been made at the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) just before the impending retirement of the Commissioner General Mallika Samarasekara, official sources said, triggering concern that an irregular appointment would be made.

Ms. Samarasekera’s appointment in 2011 was smooth compared to earlier when trade unions opposed the appointment of outsiders to this key post.

K. A. P. Kaluarachchi, Deputy Commissioner General is on the verge of retirement while H. B. A. Seneviratne, Senior Deputy Commissioner General has been posted at the Finance Ministry as senior tax consultant, just five months before Ms. Samarasekara is due for retirement, the sources said.

However Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera has given an assurance to senior IRD officials at a meeting held at the Finance Ministry this week that a competent and qualified official will appointed as the next Commissioner General but he declined to comment on the seniority basis, these sources said.

The department is also confronted with a major shortage of highly professional staff to establish a good governance structure.
The Department has to fill 775 vacancies including the posts of 3 deputy commissioners, 126 posts of senior and general assessors’, 469 senior and general tax officers and 177 officers of other ranks.

Interviews to recruit suitable persons to fill these vacancies are now being carried out but finding suitable and qualified candidates have become a difficult task, the sources revealed.

Dr. Jayasundera has emphasized the need to recruit younger professionals to fill these vacancies and to reorganise tax administrations along functional lines, adopt a national system of unique taxpayer identification numbers, strengthen audits and improve tax payer services.

A Revenue Administration Management Information System is being introduced with technical assistance of the Singapore Government.

Human resource development on subject specific knowledge and change management is being done through distinguished institutions including the National University of Singapore and other training programmes supported by the Asian Development Bank, the sources added.