Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer
Vinette Keene never takes no for an answer. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
IT'S NOT a good idea to tell Vinette Keene that something just cannot be done. It's not wise, either to suggest that she should go left without a dozen good reasons why right is impossible.
A mixture of stubbornness and never-say-die optimism characterises the woman who has risen up the ranks in the revenue system to become the Acting Director General of Tax Admin-istration with responsibility for the management and control of all the Tax Administration Departments.
So impressive has been her performance that she was nominated to the 2001 edition of the International Who's Who of Professionals for her contribution as a leader in commerce, economics, policy and trade.
She was also honoured by the University of New Orleans Alumni Association for outstanding achievement and the Jamaica Civil Service Association, as a 'mover and shaker' in the public service.
Those who have been 'shaken' as she made her way to the top know the mettle of the woman.
"I never take no for an answer," Vinette Keen told Outlook.
The daughter of a Presbyterian preacher, this woman's received inheritance of faith has manifested itself in an unusual way. Her creed is "ask for whatever you want, you just might get it."
Vinette was born in George's Plain, Westmoreland, one of six children of Reverend and Mrs. Vincent Robinson. Her dad, the Presbyterian preacher man, was very strict, but mother was the homemaker who pleaded their (the children's) case. Growing up in the church, Vinette recalls, "gave me a very sound grounding in ethical principles and values."
The family moved from Westmoreland to Four Paths, Clarendon, where Vinette spent most of her formative years and attended Glenmuir High School. When her father decided to move again to Fyffes Pen, St. Elizabeth, Vinette went to stay with a relative while attending Sixth Form at Montego Bay High School.
Her father, she said, "always wanted one of us to become a gynaecologist. He taught me to spell the word from my eyes were at my knees." Visitors to the Robinson home were often treated to a spelling show down and the word "gynaecologist' figured prominently.
But, in school, Vinette says she was never ever good at the sciences. On completing sixth form, her father insisted that she continue in school, so she decided to get a job. When he changed his tune and said she could do whatever she wanted, she decided to go to school.
The decision thus made, she travelled to Kingston and sat in the office of the head of the Business Education Department College of Arts Science and technology (C.A.S.T., now Utech), to explain that although the application date had passed, she needed to be in school in September.
Vinette repeated this routine for several days until the department head gave in and she was admitted to C.A.S.T. She loved Business Education and also discovered that she liked teaching. On graduation in 1979, she secured employment at Wolmer's High School for Girls.
Teaching, however, only lasted for a year, although Vinette recalls, "it was a tremendous success in terms of the passes and the bonding with students." But, she realised that, in terms of her career goals, the classroom felt like a dead end.
"When I made the decision to go to C.A.S.T, I told myself that I wanted to get to the top. There were two ways to do this: one was to work (which took a long time) and the other was to study. I chose the study route." In 1980, Vinette began a programme in Management Studies at the University of the West Indies. In her class were a number of women, many of whom subsequently rose, along with her, in the Government service and in corporate life.
On graduation from the UWI, she was employed to the Trade Board, securing the job by her usual method of 'taking the bull by the horns,' with no time wasted sending in résumé's and courting personnel officers. She went directly to the administrator and got a job as a systems administrator. However, the Trade Board was then caught in the throes of change - trade matters were then being liberalised. The Board was also being downsized. The Revenue Board was just then setting up its Taxation Unit and Vinette made her usual sales talk directly to the head and was offered a job. Still, she was torn between accepting a job with Colgate which had also offered her a job after a six-part interview. "I chose tax administration," Vinette recalls, "because it was a new and evolving area and the options for leave were better." It was the start of her revenue career.
At the Revenue Board, she attained the position of Special Agent III, with responsibility for managing an audit group. Between 1987 and 1991, she played a leading role in the development and implementation of the General Consumption Tax (GCT) as Implementation Team Leader.
She was subsequently selected as Deputy Commissioner Field Operations with primary responsibility for audit and compliance within the newly created department set up to administer the GCT.
GCT she says, was something entirely new and, as such, she was very excited to be co-opted into the implementation team and later became the head of that department. "It was completely fulfilling to build something from scratch ."
Keene also headed the computerisation committee which saw areas of the service move from using manual ledgers to computers for data entry and storage.
In 1995, Vinette Keene was selected as a Fellow of the prestigious Hubert Humphrey Fellowship run under the Fulbright Programme to pursue Post Graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she majored in Public Administration and Management at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.
As part of her professional development during this programme she completed a three-month internship at the United Nation in New York in the department of Management Development, assisting in the analysis and compilation of studies on "restoring governance in conflict torn states in Africa."
She also completed extensive studies in Human Resource Management while on her fellowship in the USA. She remains an active member of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and holds a MBA from the University of New Orleans.
It was in 1999 that Vinette Keene became Acting Commissioner of the GCT Department, working in this area until November of that same year when she assumed the role of Commissioner of Taxpayer Audit and Assessment Department that was established under the Tax Administration Reform Programme (TaxARP).
Mrs. Keene is very "keen" about her role as administrator and used her change management skills to build a new service oriented culture. Her management teams, she says have been very co-operative in the process of change involved wherever she worked. They have worked on weekends, public holidays and have done "whatever it took to get the job done."
In August 2005, Mrs. Keene was appointed to her current role. She comments, "My greatest challenge is getting the people in the different departments to cooperate with each other. Getting the most out of people is what a successful leader does," she added.
Keene states, "I have always looked to successful people to see what they do." Her current role involves co-ordinating the 're-branding of the organisation under a new culture and the motivation of staff. "I believe that my core responsibility is to find a cohesive vision and effectively align the 3,500 individuals in the tax administration with its core goals and objectives," Keene states. The physical improvement of revenue offices is also on her agenda, as conditions must be improved for staff. For taxpayers, she says there are many pleasant surprises in the works, including many easier methods of paying their taxes.
"Enforcement is our last resort, but we have to make examples of those who will not pay in order to create the deterrent effect."
Married but divorced, Keene says she is the mother a "beautiful Danielle", an 18-year-old who currently attends the University of the West Indies.
At home, she loves just 'being quiet' but also enjoys cooking and listening to, or reading motivational literature. "I live to inspire people."
Until about 2002, Keene says that her motto was , 'My greatest revenge is a big success'. That year, the woman who still attends the Presbyterian Church changed her personal motto to "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." "It's softer," she says, "but it has the same impact. I was a bit fiery. I wanted to be mellower, be calmer in my spirit."
In life, she concludes, "I have been tremendously blessed. I also have never taken no for an answer."
"I tell people, whatever you want in life just ask. You may just get the yes that changes your life."
