THE OECD has appointed a Kenyan Mr James
Karanja as the Joint OECD/UNDP Tax Inspectors Without Boards (TIWB) Initiative
from April 11, 2016. TIWB has been designed to support
developing countries to build tax audit capacity. In a real-time 'learn
by doing' approach, TIWB facilitates the sharing of expertise by the
deployment of experienced tax auditors on a demand-led basis to developing
countries.
The TIWB Initiative was launched in July 2015 at the Third International
Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa by OECD Secretary-General
Angel Gurría and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark. To date, TIWB has delivered
a conservatively estimated 185 million USD in additional revenues from programmes
across Africa, Asia and Latin America. New programmes are currently being
planned in Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi and Nigeria.
Mr. Karanja, currently Assistant Manager of the International Tax Office
at the Kenya Revenue Authority, has been instrumental in leading Kenya’s
compliance with the international standards with exchange of information.
He has been serving as Chair of the ATAF Cross Border Taxation Technical
Committee since its inception in 2014 and led its very significant input
into the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project. That input
led to revisions to several of the BEPS package outputs such as guidance
on pricing of cross border commodity transactions. His leadership was key
to the Technical Committee’s input.
A Kenyan national, Mr. Karanja holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the Faculty
of Law, University of Nairobi and is due to complete his Masters in Public
Policy and Management at Strathmore Business School.
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