The Effect of Automating Customs Systems on Performance of Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA)

The discussion of customs systems on performance of revenue authority companies Worldwide has gathered much momentum in over recent decades. Although a considerable systems knowledge base exists in Zimbabwe revenue authority there have been no comprehensive studies on the effects of automating customs systems on performance of Zimbabwe Revenue Authority of Zimbabwe which has been conducted. Automating customs systems has become a strategic issue in ZIMRA. However, the fact that customs systems which are used by ZIMRA are currently unknown. It is against this background that this study investigated the effects of automating customs systems on performance of Zimbabwe Revenue Authority of Zimbabwe. This study sought to assess the effect of automation of customs system on service delivery at ZIMRA, to evaluate the role of automating customs procedures in increasing revenue collection at ZIMRA, to assess the impact of automating customs procedures on reducing opportunities for corruption and to establish the challenges encountered by ZIMRA in automating its customs procedures. The literature on automating customs systems in organizations has shown that the following areas have not been explored: the meaning attached to customs systems is currently unknown, the effect of automation of customs system on service delivery at ZIMRA is unknown and the role of automating customs procedures in increasing revenue collection at ZIMRA is unknown. Data for this study was collected through questionnaires and six semi-structured with employees of ZIMRA in Zimbabwe. The systematic random sampling method was used to select respondents for quantitative research while the purposive method was used to select respondents for qualitative research. The SPSS version 21.0 was adopted to analyze quantitative data while the reduction method was adopted for qualitative data