ICT and Tax Administration in Sub-Saharan Africa: Adopting ITAS in Uganda and Sierra Leone

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Date
2022-10Author
Occhiali, Giovanni
Akol, Doris
Kargbo, Philip M.
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Abstract
The adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the public sector,
including for tax administration, has been hailed as potentially transformational over the last
few decades. Its impact has been less far-reaching than imagined. A literature examining the
determinants of – and obstacles to – ICT adoption arose as a result, almost exclusively
focusing on the experience of high-income countries. However, understanding the
experience of adoption in low-income countries is equally important, especially given the
potential role that ICTs can play in tackling various development issues, including increasing
mobilisation of domestic revenue. To help fill this gap, we present two in-depth case studies
of the process of adopting an integrated tax administration system (ITAS) in Uganda and
Sierra Leone, based on a series of semi-structured interviews with members of the
respective revenue authorities and ministries of finance.
Our analysis shows that many of the factors that facilitate and impede the adoption process
are the same as those identified in high-income countries. However, we also identify some
factors that are more likely to be relevant for low-income countries. These include the impact
of the timeline for disbursing donor funding, the processes donors require to be used for
procurement, and the quality of legacy data to be migrated into the new system. The need to
embark on change management and re-engineering business processes was also
recognised more fully than might have been expected in countries with relatively little prior
experience in e-government services.