Environmental Scanning

Environmental Scanning (ES) Specialist

Background

The Revenue Mobilization, Investment and Trade (REMIT) is a 39-month (2021 – 2025) program funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and is implemented by Adam Smith International (ASI). The program provides technical assistance (TA) to Pakistan with a broader objective to implement reforms for strengthening macroeconomic stability and improving conditions for high and sustained growth, mutual prosperity, job creation, and poverty reduction. The Programme works towards supporting the Government of Pakistan, its relevant ministries, institutions, and departments to strengthen revenue mobilisation reforms/initiatives, address investment environment challenges, facilitate trade and drive competitiveness by reducing trade barriers, and improve the macroeconomic policy and its management.

Over the past year, REMIT's flagship achievement has been the rollout of Compliance Risk Management (CRM), designed to enhance FBR's ability to harness big data, detect non-compliance across taxpayer behaviors, close compliance gaps, and mobilize additional revenues.

Job Summary

We seek one risk assessment specialist to design and perform an outward-looking review process to ensure FBR's Compliance Risk Management (CRM) system stays adaptive and resilient. Using IMF and OECD's technical guidance on the subject, the role focuses on identifying political, economic, sociocultural, technological, legal, environmental, and cross-border shifts that may influence taxpayer behavior and compliance dynamics. Insights will be translated into concise, actionable intelligence—clearly linking external developments with specific adjustments to CRM rules, thresholds, and nudge strategies. The consultant will serve as the key evidence-producer, authoring decision-focused ES Notes for the CRM Committee and maintaining a comprehensive Change Log that documents how the system evolves in response to external pressures. Success will be measured by the system's ability to anticipate risks, exploit emerging opportunities, and strengthen FBR's credibility in tax administration

Duties and Responsibilities

Key duties of ES specialist include:

• Carry out the ES cycle, moving beyond simple monitoring to a disciplined practice of strategic foresight. This involves continuous "always-on" signal detection, analysis, and synthesis of external intelligence.

• Conduct systematic environmental analysis using the PESTLE+ framework, researching and interpreting the impact of changes across the Political, Economic, Sociocultural, Technological, Legal, Environmental, and Cross-Border domains on tax compliance.

• Translate abstract external trends into concrete, actionable intelligence. For each material development, the consultant must articulate the "behavioural implications for taxpayers" and propose "specific adjustments to risk parameters, thresholds, targeting, and nudge content."

• Author the concise, decision-focused (max. 2-page) Quarterly ES Note, a strategic artifact designed to facilitate timely and evidence-based decisions by the CRM Committee and mitigate "Analysis Paralysis."

• Serve as the primary "evidence producer," building a credible and auditable narrative for stakeholders by formally documenting the link between external shifts and the FBR's adaptive responses.

• Ensure the scan provides comprehensive coverage, explicitly identifying and analyzing emerging threats and opportunities relevant to both corporate taxpayers and the non-corporate sector.

• Maintain the institutional memory of strategic adaptation, ensuring all approved adjustments are meticulously recorded in the central CRM Change Log, providing a chronological record of how the system's logic evolves over time.