Monday, the 12th of February, marks the end of the contract with Director General of the State Revenue Service (VID) Ieva Jaunzeme.
Latvian government decided not to renew Jaunzeme’s contract on the 8th of August 2023.
After assessing completion of VID’s 2020-2022 strategy, Ministry of Finance concluded that a portion of some of the performance indicators were not achieved.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) performed an analysis of VID’s operations and strategy. The report mentions that public trust in VID went down from 51.2% in 2018 to 41.7% in 2022. The planned level was 60%.
Customer satisfaction level with VID service quality is down from 74% in 2019 to 67.1% in 2022.
The Ministry of Finance notes that the minister had set up multiple objectives for VID Director General Jaunzeme because it was found that certain objectives remained uncompleted. On top of that, the ministry also initiated an internal investigation for failure to adopt recommendations from results of an audit. A reprimand was issued for this.
The State Audit, too, pointed out problems and necessary improvements to VID operations in its audit “On the Annual Report of the Republic of Latvia for 2021 on the Implementation of the State Budget and on Local Government Budgets”. Recommendations were given to fix mistakes in records of taxes, duties and other payments related to the state budget. The State Audit also stressed the need to improve the functionality of the accounting of the Payment Administration Information System (MAIS).
The State Audit mentioned in its report that problems with MAIS have significantly limited the work of auditors and made it impossible to perform timely inspections
and gain sufficient and appropriate evidence of the correctness of information in VID annual tax report on 2021.
In accordance with the order from the Ministry of Finance of the 7th of February 2019, Jaunzeme was appointed for a specific term – until the 10th of February 2024.
Six months before the end of the term the Cabinet of Ministers makes the decision on extending VID director general’s term or terminating relations.
On the 30th of January 2024 the Cabinet of Ministers approved Baiba Šmite-Roķe as the new head of VID.
She will start working as the new director general of VID on the 13th of February.
In her address to ministers, the new director general said people want an honest, logical and dialogue-focused institution, and that under her management VID will become a modern and customer-oriented service. At the same time, she wants ministers to participate in bringing change, because there are challenges ahead that apply to more than just VID.
Šmite-Roķe said changes will reach in three directions: digital transformation, comprehensible services and VID internal reform. Change of the institution’s internal culture will be the most challenging point, says the new head of the service.
Also read: Latvian government officially appoints new head of State Revenue Service
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