According to Dunphy, Griffiths, and Benn (2013), governance defines roles, responsibilities, and accountability within an organisation. While Sisulu (2012) defines governance as the act of establishing policies through continuous monitoring of proper implementation by executives in leading the governing body of an organisation,. Corporate governance, according to Mankins and Rogers (2010), is operationalised as the means of human development that is achieved through the management of social and economic resources by empowering others.

In the current political pluralism, corporate governance has been of critical importance (Reenen, 2011). It is an essential and crucial factor that is mainly used in the maintenance of an active balance between equality in society and the need for order (Boyd, 2015). Other elements that come in handy with corporate governance in the public sector include: having and maintaining a well-organised corporate framework that allows citizens to make a contribution and come up with creative means for solving existing challenges; using power that is accountable; and maintaining and protecting human freedom and rights according to the law (Clarkson, 2015).

Corporate governance stipulates the responsibilities and rights to be shared amongst diverse members of a corporation, for example, the board of directors, executives, employees of the organisation, the community, and other stakeholders, and exhibits the norms and procedures for community decision-making. Corporate governance helps the organisation come up with the structure that assists in formulating their objectives, the ways of accomplishing the set goals, and monitoring performance (Fung, 2014). The goal of a good corporate governance system is to allow the management board the liberty to run the government or organisation while nonetheless applying the liberty contained by a structure of effective accountability (Brown, 2017).

The ZIMRA has the mandate to collect tax revenue from the citizens of Zimbabwe for the benefit of a consolidated revenue fund managed by the Government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry responsible for finance. It has, however, become common practice that tax payers in Zimbabwe can connive with ZIMRA officials and employees to evade their duty to pay taxes. This points to the lack of or weakness in corporate governance practices at the state revenue collector.

The study seeks to develop an operational framework that will improve state revenue collections by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) through good corporate governance for the benefit of the Government of Zimbabwe.This study seeks to find ways to prevent unethical behaviours, illegal dealings, and unauthorised activities from participant stakeholders that throw away the national revenue to individuals or corporations instead of to the Revenue Authority that funds the government's expenditures and operations.