BY THOMAS DIXON
232NEWS, FREETOWN
Following Citizens demand to review Sierra Leone’s Passport Contract award to Lebanese wheeler- dealer Jamel Shallop, the new Immigration Boss Mohamed Konneh has noted that they will review the Passport contract award to Netpage.
“We will review the passport contract seriously. We are not working for ourselves but for the people of Sierra Loene,” Konneh revealed.
In the just published Auditor General Report, the Auditors exposed that the company producing Sierra Leone’s Passport owed the government huge amount of royalty taxes and at the same time refusing to pay government for it.
“Outstanding Royalty not Paid by Netpage Contrary to Section 1 (1.4) of the contract change note No. SID1178.008 between the Government of Sierra Leone and the HID CID Limited, which states that from January to December 2022, approved royalty payment of 8% per sale of each e-passport shall be paid to the Government of Sierra Leone by Netpage (third party representative of HID CID Limited),” the audit report revealed.
That they observed that outstanding royalty of US$429,627 was not paid to the Government of Sierra Leone for e-passports produced in 2022.
The Financial Secretary Mathew Dingie denied that the company is to pay any royalty to the Government of Sierra Leone because the said agreement quoted by the Auditors have not gone to government.
The Chief Immigration Officer noted that they are in negotiation with officials of the Ministry of Finance to see how they can get royalty from the passport sale.
He also highlighted that they have stopped the whole idea of proxy passport for now until measures are put in place to ensure that.
