Revenue collection officials from East Africa are in Kigali for a three-day meeting on integrity, ethical culture and professionalism enhancement in fighting corruption and increasing revenue collection for economic development.

The meeting brings  together senior officials and commissioners in charge of integrity, internal audit and investigation in their respective countries.

They will review progress in implementing previous decisions and recommendations, then each country will present its own corruption survey statistics for the past three years, according to Stella Cosmos, the chairperson of the committee and director of internal affairs at the Tanzania Revenue Authority.

It will be the third meeting of its kind since the first one held in June last year in Kenya.

"Corruption in the EAC remains a fundamental barrier to effective tax management which affects trust with stakeholders. Different surveys show that 50 per cent of respondents within tax administration experience corruption. That is why we are seeking  ways to tackle the issue,” she said.

Cosmos said more efforts were needed in fighting corruption. She cited the East African Bribery Index 2014 Survey on likelihood of encountering bribery indicating that Burundi had the highest likelihood of bribery, at 19.4 per cent,  followed by Tanzania, at 19 per cent, Uganda at 17.9 percent, Kenya at 12.3 per cent and   Rwanda 2.9 per cent.

"We have to join hands in fighting corruption so that tax administration becomes successful. The first step that revenue authorities committee took was to unveil the gaps we have so that an improvement in integrity can be realised. The  bribery index perceptions cannot be undermined as it is the starting point of improvement and take initiatives to save taxpayers’ money,” she added.

Rwanda Revenue Authority commissioner  general Richard Tusabe said, to achieve economic growth, integrity and professional ethics among administration staff were needed.

"To achieve sustainable revenue collection we must focus on integrity of  our staff. Harmonisation in EAC can boost cross-border trade and investment across the countries where people  expect similar treatment in terms of service delivery,” he said.

Tusabe said ICT is  important in investigating  corruption.

"We want to embrace ICT in declaring goods and personal property, pay taxes to avoid customers’ contact with staff which could lead to corruption,” he said.

The East Africa Bribery Index 2014 Survey indicates that  only respondents from Rwanda were satisfied with government efforts towards fighting corruption,  while  their  other  East  African counterparts  felt  that  government  anti-corruption  efforts were insufficient.