Kiir appoints another foreigner as National Revenue Authority boss

JUBA – South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, has appointed another foreigner as Commissioner-General of the county’s National Revenue Authority, a month after firing the institution’s acting chief.

Dr. Patrick Mugoya, a Tanzanian economist, took the office during a ceremony conducted in the capital Juba on Tuesday morning.

Speaking to the press during the take-over ceremony, Mugoya vowed to work to transform the country’s financial institution, saying he will work to develop a tax collection mechanism that will change the status quo.

“First, we will fully operationalize the National Revenue Authority. We will immediately take measures to make sure that the NRA is fully operational,” he said.

“Secondly, we will ensure the NRA formulates or develops in a participatory manner with all key stakeholders a strategic plan for the Authority that will see to it that non-oil revenue mobilization is enhanced in a transparent, efficient effective, and accountable manner,” he added.

He further said his administration will “put into place all these measures while at the same time sealing loopholes and revenue leakages in terms of tax evasions, unscrupulous exemptions, tax avoidance, smuggling and the like, as immediate measures.”

Mugoya’s predecessor was a Ghanaian national, but was sacked in 2019 by finance minister Salvatore Garang after he was accused of suspicious transactions, and was replaced by a South Sudanese national who worked as the acting NRA chief.

Last month, Kiir replaced the acting NRA boss after the Central Bank said the world’s youngest country has ran out of its foreign exchange reserve.