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Angry employees delay the work of the Revenue Authority
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Angry employees delay the work of the Revenue Authority
The change of mentalities at the Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) is slow to take place. The director of the institution, Sudhamo Lal, has often said he wants to set up a “high performance culture at the MRA (…) with a system of human resources based on performance and efficiency”. But it seems his appeal has not been understood by most of his employees who have stopped work at a time where the revenue department has a lot on its plate.
The MRA was implemented to try and rationalise the work of the civil servants of the ministry of Finance dealing with tax collection. They offered a 10% wage increase to its 248 employees asking them to work half an hour more everyday. In fact, only 87 of them accepted the offer while the others preferred to remain in the civil service, as the law allows them. The only problem is that they did not warn the MRA of the decision and caught the institution by surprise at a very difficult time.
The first consequence is on the payment of salaries that the MRA is committed to pay ing on the 25th of each month. To achieve such an objective, the employees should have already started to work on them but no one is in the office to do the job which remains at a standstill.
Long working hours including overtime </B>
Likewise, tax returns forms should be sent to all taxpayers within the next few weeks. Not only have the forms not been printed yet but also the examination of these forms will be a difficult exercise in the absence of 75% of the MRA employees. This is a large accountant exercise which requests long working hours including overtime. The VAT department as well as the customs department are working at a slow pace while there is a lot to do.
The MRA employees seem to have prepared their action in advance and this may make it even more difficult to make them change their minds. The president of the Government General Services Union, Rashid Imrith, is asking for a “high-powered committee including officers of the ministry of Finance as well as of the civil service, trade unions and the MRA to review all the problems and find solutions. There is no other way of getting out of this situation than through negotiations”.
However, the requests of the employees may be difficult to access, as they go against the director’s requests for “performance and efficiency”: a better salary increase and the restoration of former working hours…
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