Strengthening capacity in tax for the Serbian Tax Administration

As part of the EC Lot 11 Framework Contract, Crown Agents provided a team of three experts to draft two Terms of Reference for technical assistance to the Serbian Tax Administration (STA). These covered IT systems to strengthen the capacity of the STA in the areas of tax collection, financial and material accounting, collection of information, reporting of tax evasion, improved taxpayer services and human resources.

A project office was established with the STA headquarters in Belgrade, and organised into three components representing the different components of reports and implementation:

• Assessment of the current situation and needs of the STA;
• Production of the Terms of Reference; and
• Drafting of reports on past and current projects in the STA, business process management, IT systems and human resources and training.

In order to have a clear and comprehensive picture of the workings of the STA, and to identify the needs to be addressed through technical assistance, the team involved representatives of international organisations and stakeholders from across the STA, both from Belgrade and from regional offices. The outputs will help the STA achieve overall objectives of increasing tax collection capabilities, and modernising and strengthening their institutional capacity.