Head of joint OECD/UNDP Tax Inspectors Without Borders initiative appointed – James Karanja

21/03/2016 – Mr. James Karanja has been appointed as Head of the joint OECD/UNDP Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) Initiative effective 11 April 2016. Mr. Karanja will lead the development of TIWB, which has been designed to support developing countries to build tax audit capacity. In a real-time 'learn by doing' approach, TIWB facilitates the sharing of expertise by the deployment of experienced tax auditors on a demand-led basis to developing countries.

The TIWB Initiative was launched in July 2015 at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa by OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark. To date, TIWB has delivered a conservatively estimated 185 million USD in additional revenues from programmes across Africa, Asia and Latin America. New programmes are currently being planned in Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi and Nigeria.

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Mr. Karanja, currently Assistant Manager of the International Tax Office at the Kenya Revenue Authority, has been instrumental in leading Kenya’s compliance with the international standards with exchange of information. He has been serving as Chair of the ATAF Cross Border Taxation Technical Committee since its inception in 2014 and led its very significant input into the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project. That input led to revisions to several of the BEPS package outputs such as guidance on pricing of cross border commodity transactions. His leadership was key to the Technical Committee’s input.

A Kenyan national, Mr. Karanja holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Nairobi and is due to complete his Masters in Public Policy and Management at Strathmore Business School.