PITAA-PFTAC Leadership Series Session 10 on Business Continuity Plan

The session will outline the procedures and processes to help a Tax Administration to continue its critical operations in the event of an unexpected disruption, such as a natural disaster, cyber-attack, or pandemic. Some of the reasons why having a BCP is essential include:

• Ensuring business resilience: A well designed BCP helps a Tax Administration to withstand an unexpected event and quickly resume normal operations. By identifying critical business functions and mapping out backup procedures, a BCP ensures that a Tax Administration can quickly respond to any disruptions and minimize the impact on its data, systems, employees and taxpayers.
• Minimizes financial impacts of tax collection budgets: Disruptions to Tax Administration operations can result in significant financial losses, especially if the Tax Administration is unable to resume normal tax collection operations quickly. A BCP can minimize the budgetary impact of such disruptions by providing guidelines for loss prevention, disaster recovery, and business resumption.
• Ensuring taxpayer confidence:  In times of crisis, taxpayers expect Tax Administrations to have a plan in place that ensures business continuity. By having a BCP, a Tax Administration can demonstrate its commitment to ensuring the highest levels of service and customer satisfaction, even in challenging times.
• Improving operational efficiency: Developing a BCP requires a Tax Administration to assess its critical business functions and identify potential risks and vulnerabilities. This process can help a Tax Administration identify areas where it can improve its operational efficiency and reduce its exposure to risks.

Acknowledging the fact that PICs are facing challenges regarding health events, climate change causing rising sea levels, more frequent flooding, storm surges, cyclones and cybersecurity threats it is necessary to ensure that strong and well-designed business plans are in place to minimize the impact of unexpected events.

We look forward to meeting with you and hope we can provide constructive recommendations to create a wider understanding of BCPs and their place in modern Tax Administration. An IMF Technical Note on BCPs,  Tax Administration: Designing a Business Continuity Plan for an Epidemic and will be utilized as a key information source in the delivery of the webinar.

We will be sending out a short survey a week before the webinar which we ask all PICs to complete. This information will provide us with insights into your own environments and contribute to discussions.

The webinar will take place on 15 March 2023 with a duration of 2 hours (Fiji time – 11 am – 1 pm).

Kindly contact Petero Maivucevuce on email pmaivucevuce@pitaa.org for enquiries.