Conference on Domestic Resource Mobilization and Illicit Financial Flows

From 12-14 March 2019, Module 1-3 of the conference on improving Domestic Resource Mobilization and stemming Illicit Financial Flows took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Upper Hill, Nairobi. On this Website we will collect and make accessible publicly available information, e.g. 

Module 1: To See – empirical findings of the Kenyan country research

12 March

Time

Activity

8.30 – 9.00

Arrival and Registration

9.00 – 9.15

Welcome and Introduction

Dr. Elias Mokua, Director, Jesuit Hakimani Centre, Nairobi

9.15 – 10.00

Opening Keynote: Reinventing Tax Justice to Achieve Social Justice – Current Challenges, Future Opportunities
Dr. Chris K. Kiptoo (CBS), Principal Secretary of State, State Department for Trade, Government of Kenya (Bio) (Keynote)

10.00–10.15

Tea Break

10.15–11.00

Presentation of the Kenya Country Report: “Tax Justice and Poverty; Narrowing Wealth Gap and Public Dependence on External Financing”

Pascal Pax Andebo, Research and Advocacy Officer, Jesuit Hakimani Centre, Nairobi (Report) (Executive Summary) (PPT)

11.00-12.30

Panel Discussion on the Report; 

  • KRA: Caxton Masudi, Deputy Commissioner, Domestic Tax Department
  • Academia: Prof. Dr. Attiya Waris, Commercial Law Department, University Nairobi (Bio)
  • CSO: Alvin Mosioma, Executive Director, Tax Justice Network Africa (Bio)
  • Economy/Finance: Yussuf Abdalla Idarus, Head of Financial Controls, Kenya Bank for Commerce, Nairobi (PPT)
  • Media: Roselyn Obala, Standard Media Group

12.30 – 2.30

Lunch

2.30 – 3.30

Five parallel Issue Specific Panel Discussions

Panel 1: Tax Exemptions and Tax Expenditures – Corporate Taxation

Dr. Rose Fumpa-Makano, Copperbelt University: a complementary view from Zambia (Bio) (PPT) (Background)

Dr. Charles Orero, KRA School, Nairobi Kenya

Dr. Agustin Redonda, Council on Economic Policies (CEP), Zurich (Switzerland) (Bio) (PPT) (Background)

Notes of Panel discussion

Panel 2: Bribery and Corruption vs. Tax Revenue Mobilization

Charles Ayamdoo, Chief Legal Officer and Director, Anti-Corruption at Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice: a complementary view from Ghana (Bio) (Presentation)

Alexis Nkurunziza, State of the Union and CNC Coordinator: a complementary view from Rwanda (Bio) (Presentation)

Samuel Kimeu, Executive Director, Transparency International (TI), Kenya (Bio) (Presentation)

Notes of Panel discussion

Panel 3: Trade Misinvoicing as part of IFFs

Tom Cardamone, Managing Director, Global Financial Integrity (GFI), Washington, DC: Complementary information from other parts of Africa (Bio) (Background)

Dr. Maximilian Mainza, Head, Economics Department, Copperbelt University, Kitwe Zambia: a complementary view from Zambia (Bio) (PPT)

Elsy Sainna, Deputy Executive Director of International Commission of Jurists, Nairobi (Bio) (Presentation) (Background)

Notes of Panel discussion

Panel 4: Tax Policy, Legislation, Administration and democratic participation

Caxton Masudi, Deputy Director, Domestic Taxes Department, KRA

Mary Ongore, Lecturer & Tutorial Fellow, Private Law Department, University of Nairobi (Bio) (PPT)

Michael Otieno, Governance Advisor, National Taxpayers Association, Kenya  (Bio)(PPT)

Notes of Panel discussion

Panel 5: Taxing private wealth better

Felix Mutati, Association of Chartered Certified Accountant, Minister of Finance (rtd.) London: A complementary view from Zambia (Bio)

Joy Ndubai, Global Tax Advisor, Action Aid, Kenya

Kwame Owino, CEO, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Kenya

Notesof Panel discussion

3.30-3.45

Tea Break

3.45 – 4.45

Drawing together findings, outlook to Module 2, 3 & 4

4.45 – 5.00

Concluding Remarks

5.00

Evening

Tea, opportunity for deepening findings, networking, tentative cooperation…

Departure

Module 2: To judge – ethical foundations of any research

13 March, morning

Time

Activity

8.30 – 9.00

Arrival and Registration

9.00  – 9.30

Opening Remarks – Introduction on the conflict between the Neoliberal World Order and Catholic Social Teaching and its implication for the tax justice debate

Dr. Jörg Alt, Research & Advocacy Officer, Jesuitenmission, Nürnberg (Bio) (Presentation) (PPT)

9.30 – 10.30

4 Presentations on Tax Justice and social justice

Prof. Willy Moka, PhD, Dean of Faculty for Philosophy, Loyola University, Kinshasa, DR Kongo (Bio) (Presentation)

Prof. Dr. Thomas Pogge, Yale University (USA), Global Justice Project (Bio) (Notes)

Prof. Dr. Attiya Waris, Commercial Law Department, University of Nairobi (Bio) (PPT)

Chris Morgan, Head of Global Tax Policy, KPMG London (Bio) (Presentation) (PPT)

10.30 – 10.45

Break-Tea

10.45-11.45

Discussion of the four presenters, Discussion with attending public

11.45 – 12.00

Observations, concluding remarks

12.00-12.30

Lunch, departure

Module 3: To act – improving national and international policies

13 March, afternoon

Time

Activity

12.30 – 1.00

Arrival and Registration, snacks

1.00 – 1.15

Introduction – Opening Remarks

Charles B. Chilufya, Director, Social Justice and Ecology Office, Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar, Nairobi

1.15 – 1.30

Findings from the Joint Synthesis Report of the research on “Tax Justice & Poverty”

Dr. Jörg Alt, Research & Advocacy Officer, Jesuitenmission, Nürnberg (Bio) (Statement short) (PPT)

1.30-1.45Comment: Putting findings of research into an all-African perspective
Dr. Fanwell Kenala Bokosi, Chief Executive Officer, AFRODAD, Harare, Zimbabwe (Bio) (PPT)

1.45 – 2.10

The top 1% of private and corporate wealth: How to make its resources better serve the Common Good of All

Max Lawson, Head of Inequality Policy, Oxfam-International, Nairobi (Bio) (PPT)

2.10 – 2.35

A short list of things governments could do to tackle IFFs

Dr. Raymond Baker, President, Global Financial Integrity, Washington DC (Bio) (PPT)

2.35 – 3.00

From tax competition to tax cooperation: Findings from the new book on Global Tax Justice

Prof. Dr. Thomas Pogge, Yale University (USA), Global Justice Project (Bio) (PPT)

3.00 – 3.15

Break Tea

3.15 – 4.15

Panel 1 Increasing transparency and accountability

Prof. Binh Tran-Nam, PhD, School of Business Law and Taxation, University of New South Wales, Australia (Bio) (Background paper) (PPT)

Rachel Etter-Phoya, Tax Justice Network Afrika Anglophone Hub Researcher, Malawi (Bio) (PTT)

Daniel Ndirangu, Head of Open Budgets Program, Institute for Public Finance, Kenya (Presentation) (PPT)

4.15 – 4.30

Break Tea

4.30 – 5.30

Panel 2 International legal cooperation

Joseph Stead, Senior Policy Analyst, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD (PPT)

Michael Sell, Seitz Partners, former Head of Tax Department at the German Federal Ministry of Finance (PPT)

Musonda Kabinga, Governance Manager, Tax Coordinator, Action Aid Zambia, Lusaka (Bio) (PPT)

5.30 – 5.45

Observations, Concluding remarks

Supper – Socializing, over supper award ceremony in honour of this years’ winner of the Amartya Sen Prize competition, Janet Adeogun (Bio) (Prizewinning Essay) and Kenneth OKpomo (Bio) (Prizewinning Essay).

Module 3, continued, 14 March

Time

Activity

8.30 – 9.30

Panel 3 National and International administrative cooperation

Felix Mutati, Association of Chartered Certified Accountant, Minister of Finance (rtd.) London: A complementary view from Zambia (Bio)

Justine Bagyenda, Executive Director, Bank of Uganda, Financial Intelligence Authority, Uganda Anti-Money Laundering Committee (rtd.) (Bio) (PPT)

OAR Steffen Scholze, Joint Tax Audit Coordinator, Federal Central Tax Office, Germany (PPT)

9.30 – 9.45

Break Tea

9.45 – 10.45

Panel 4 DRM/IFFs/good financial governance as part of developmental aid

Opimbi Osore, Africa hub regional coordinator for GIZ IFF Global program for combatting Illicit Financial Flows (Bio) (PPT)

Dr. Fanwell Kenala Bokosi, Chief Executive Officer, AFRODAD, Harare, Zimbabwe (Bio) (PPT)

Aggrey Owino, Head of Knowledge Management, Tax and Advisory Policy, Kenya Revenue Authority (PPT)

10.45 – 12.00

Lunch

12.00 – 1.30

Wrap up: Increasing Domestic Revenue Mobilization and Stemming IFFs – Key for Sustainable Development – Focus on EU-AU cooperation

Jerome Benausse for the Head of Cooperation, EU-Delegation Nairobi, previously Head of Sector for Domestic Resource Mobilization at DG-DEVCO, Brussels (Presentation)

Jason Braganza, Deputy Executive Director, Tax Justice Network Africa (Bio)

Felix Mutati, Association of Chartered Certified Accountant, Minister of Finance (rtd.) London: A complementary view from Zambia (Bio)

Michael Sell, Seitz Partners, former Head of Tax Department at the German Federal Ministry of Finance

Joseph Stead, Senior Policy Analyst, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD

1.30 – 2.00

Concluding Unit

Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, President of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar

Module 4: The way ahead in Kenya

After evaluating the previous conference and strategizing the translations of its findings for Kenya and the countries of the East African Community, this Module will aim to educate, engage and mobilize local and national stakeholder and bind them together in Joint Advocacy.The date will be announced by the Jesuit Hakimani Centre, for this watch <https://jesuithakimani.net/>