“RAMIS deeply unfit for purpose”

Revenue Administration Management Information System (RAMIS) at the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) is deeply unfit for purpose, says Prof. Mick Moore.

“There is no excuse for having that in a contemporary tax administration. It’s fixable; but I do not know what the problem is. But the fact is no one has been concerned with fixing it.” Prof. Moore, a Political Economist, Professional Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies told the ‘Reform Now’ Conference, organized by Advocata Institute.

Noting that IRD has got immediate scope for reforms, Prof. Moore stated that the staff of the IRD is not recruited with accountancy qualifications, which is highly unusual in the contemporary world.

“They are recruiting fresh people, who do not possess the same basic qualifications as the people in companies that they are dealing with. And they have lesser accountancy qualifications.”

Despite technology and organization of tax collection has been changing constantly over recent decades, Prof. Moore stated that, “unfortunately, that has not happened in Sri Lanka and tax administration in Sri Lanka looks absolutely antiquated.”

There is no IT cadre within IRD; and they depend on a range of odd people to try and fix their IT problems,” Prof. Moore added.