The Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Mr. George Blankson, has been elected President of the Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators (CATA).

The GRA Commissioner-General was elected at the association’s 33rd Technical Conference, held in Malta on 14th October, 2012 and would hold the presidency till 2015.

CATA is the largest association of tax administrators, with membership of 49 countries, which include the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, India, Nigeria, Malaysia and Commonwealth countries from all five continents.

Mr. Blankson assumes the presidency of CATA, with 26 years experience in revenue administration, which include holding the position of Lead Consultant and Project Manager for Crown Agents on the National Revenue Authority Modernisation Project in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

He was before then Deputy Commissioner (Operations) of the VAT Service of Ghana and previously, Assistant Commissioner in the erstwhile CEPS. Other officers elected to steer the affairs of CATA for the three years spanning 2012 – 2015 include Dr. Mold Shukor Malifar of Malaysia as Chairman, Mr. Peter Steeds of United Kingdom, Vice-Chairman.

CATA was founded by Finance Ministers of Commonwealth Countries at a conference in Barbados in 1978, CATA has over the past 34 years been instrumental in promoting modernization of tax administration and adoption of efficiency-enhancing tax policies, procedures and processes.

Malta, the venue of the 2012 CATA Conference was the venue for the 16th Conference of CATA, where late President, Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills was elected a member of the management Committee of the association in 1995. Credit: The Business Analyst