Oceania SMART Consultancy firm has been awarded the contract to conduct a feasibility study in the move to separate the Ministry of Customs and Revenue into two Ministries.
This was confirmed by Deputy Prime Minister Tuala Iosefo Ponifasio in response to questions from Radio Polynesia.
In June, the MCR issued an Express of Interest for Human Resource Consultancy Services to provide Technical Analysis and Evaluation in Facilitating the Proposed separation of the Ministry of Customs and Revenue.
As endorsed by Cabinet (FK(22) 03).
“The newly planned government reform to separate the current Ministry of Customs and Revenue to establish two separate government bodies, is an initiative to increase efficiency in service delivery as well as creating effective measures to foster innovative methods to increase economic benefits.
“The consulting service will provide technical assistance and support on the development and implementation of proposed organisational structures for the new entities including provisions of providing support for human resource management assessment and planning.
This includes the conducting of needed research, desktop reviews, stakeholder and staff consultations, analysis and report writing.”
According to the Minister of Customs and Revenue, the Tenders Board approved MCR’s recommendation on 29th August 2022 and a conveyance was received on 31st August 2022 to appoint the consultant.
The recommendation was based on Expressions of Interest sought by the Ministry of Customs and Revenue on the advice of the Tenders Board.
Oceania SMART Consultancy has been notified and we are now awaiting a response to our letter with their financial proposal and work plan.
“The consultant is to meet with the officials from MCR and the task force that was set up to assess the feasibility of the separation later this month.
“The aim of the proposed split is to ensure we have an Inland revenue that focuses on our revenue collection while Customs focuses on border security.
“We want each Ministry to work efficiently and productively so they need to focus.
“The Cabinet is yet to look at our separation proposal but that will not happen until everything is in place.
“The HR is the last part of our feasibility study. We have already looked at all the different areas of the core management function of each Ministry including costs, IT structures, management and operating systems, post-split training and capacity building for staff so 80% of our work has been completed.
“These things require proper planning and we are progressing well with our plan.”
