Washington Archibald High student Trevaun Williams wins First Prize in the COTA 2012 Essay Contest

Acting Comptroller of the Inland Revenue in St. Kitts and Nevis, Mr. Edward Gift (right) accepting Trevaun’s trophy at the just concluded Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators’ 22nd General Assembly and Technical Conference held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, AUGUST 9TH 2012 – Washington Archibald High School’s Trevaun Williams has made his twin-island nation proud by winning first prize in the Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators’ (COTA) Third Essay Competition 2012.

Thirteen-year-old Trevaun won the competition from a field of 29 entries from the Member States of the CARICOM block.

The first prize winner will receive an Ipad 2 (32 GB) and a Trophy, while the winning school will receive a desktop computer.

Second prize was won by Barbados, with St. Lucia taking third prize.

The COTA Essay competition is held every two years. It provides secondary school students from across the CARICOM region with a forum to develop a comprehensive understanding of the nature and work of their respective country’s tax administration procedures and systems.

Additionally, it provides an opportunity for tax administrators and policy makers to obtain valuable insight about the views of future taxpayers. The topic for this year contest focused on the role of Information and Communication Technology in enhancing a country’s capabilities in tax administration and revenue collection.

COTA’s primary goals are to improve policy coordination and collaboration, and encourage experience sharing and networking among Tax Administrations in the Caribbean Community.

Acting Comptroller of the Inland Revenue Department in St. Kitts and Nevis, Mr. Edward Gift, accepted the winning prize at the opening ceremony of the recently concluded Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators’ 22nd General Assembly and Technical Conference held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

The contest was coordinated by the CARICOM Secretariat in partnership with each Inland Revenue or Tax Administration Department in Member States.

The Inland Revenue Department on St. Kitts and Nevis collaborated with the Ministry of Education and Information to ensure that the rules and structure of the competition was disseminated to the high schools. The top 3 entries were submitted to the CARICOM Secretariat for evaluation.

The top three (3) essays from each CARICOM territory were then reviewed by a panel at the CARICOM Secretariat and the winners subsequently announced at the General Assembly and Technical Meeting, held as part of the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators (COTA) in Trinidad. St. Kitts and Nevis has performed exceptionally well in the previous two staging of the essay contest, taking first prize and second prize respectively during the first two staging of the COTA Essay Competition.

The Inland Revenue Department wishes to congratulate Trevaun, his family, teachers and school on this significant victory, and would like to implore other students to participate in future COTA Essay contests.