By Thomas Dixon
FREETOWN, Feb. 24 (232news.com) – “We reviewed 1,245 duty waiver documents that were without adequate supporting documents. We therefore could not ascertain whether these duty waiver concessions, granted to these taxpayers which amounted to Le144.7 billion were legitimate,” the Auditor report revealed.
That they reviewed the duty waiver concession process and observed weak internal controls in the entire process.
“We observed that the Office of the Financial Secretary wrote letters to the Commissioner-General of the NRA requesting him to facilitate the clearance of duty waivers. These letters purported that the Deputy Minister of Finance has approved granting duty waivers to various institutions, whose details are attached to the letter on a spreadsheet. We did not see any evidence of the Minister’s approval in any of the documents. In many cases, the attached spreadsheet was also not signed or initiated by any responsible officer. Thus making it very susceptible to manipulation, as anyone can replace this list with a new one,” the Audit Report exposed.
That 1,245 duty waiver documents reviewed were without adequate supporting documents and that the documents include letters of request from beneficiaries stating eligibility criteria, letters from line ministry or parastatal, copy of business registration certificates, etc.
That these documents are essential to determine whether the beneficiaries were entitled to duty waiver concession, adding that, because auditors were not provided with the documentation, they (Auditors) could not ascertain whether these duty waiver concessions, granted to these taxpayers which amounted to Le144,758,718,708.50 were legitimate.
That based on the auditors’ analyses and professional judgment, some categories such as diplomatic, development partners and embassies were granted waivers with a high likelihood of eligibility, although documentations were not submitted.
“For other categories such as Government MDAs, energy, construction, infrastructure, returning diplomats, MPs and others, a total of Le56.8 billion granted to taxpayers as duty waiver concession may not have been genuine,” the report maintained.
Sahr Jusu in response to SALONE TIMES’ first publication on irregular duty waivers stated that Government has put stringent measures in place on duty concessions.
