By Joseph Lamin Kamara
Head of the Local Tax Unit at Freetown City Council says the behaviour of government institutions in relation to local tax payment is slowing down the development of the city but also the country.
Thomas Patrick Kangoma told Politico that ministries and other public offices had been evading council tax for the past three to four years.
“What is most annoying is that our government ministries don’t pay their taxes at all,” said Kangoma, adding that “the only ministry that is compliant is the local government ministry.”
He said “the last time ministries cooperated was between 2008 and 2009.”
“Even the Attitudinal and Behavioural Change secretariat that was established to coordinate the campaign of attitudinal change in the country has failed to pay taxes,” stated Kangoma, adding that when public institutions cooperated they collected over Le 1 billion per year “and that helped develop the city very well.”
He said they had even offered scholarships to university students. “But since then we collected Le 89 million in 2011, Le 89, 500,000 in 2012, Le 135 million in 2013 and Le 95 million this year,” he went on. Kangoma said the drop in cooperation was hindering development lamenting that they had given the defaulting institutions yet they had failed to comply.
Public Relations Officer of the Freetown City Council, Cyril Mattia, said even though they had published the names of defaulters they still did not pay.
Mattia said the defaulter were "politically powerful" hence. He said they were thinking of establishing a public private partnership with service delivery institutions like banks to force people to comply with their tax obligations.
He said they were also thinking of putting measures in place to force people vying for public offices to first produce proof of tax payment. “People wanting to be elected as MPs or councilors need to show evidence of tax payment for at least three years for both themselves and their property before they should be granted party symbols,” said Mattia, adding “but we can be successful only if the government supports us.”
Permanent security at Ministry of Information, Paul Sandy said “the ministry does not have the right to deduct taxes from salaries of staff.” He said the local government Act, which “has not been amended since it was made, does not allow for that” and challenged the City Council to "write to us if they have any problem with us”.
Human Resource Officer in the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, Samuel Turner said staff in his ministry had been complying with payment of their council tax but were now refusing for the ministry to make any deduction from source because “they say they are not realising any dividend from Freetown City Council”.
Turner said staff members were also complaining that after paying taxes, obtaining receipts was problematic “so they now prefer to pay individually to City Council revenue clerks on the streets”. He advised the council to "have an agreement with the country’s Accountant General to deduct taxes from salaries before they send them to public offices”.
When contacted, the national coordinator of Attitudinal and Behaviourial Change Secretariat said the council “have not done their homework”. Nanette Thomas said they had always paid their taxes, adding “we practice what we preach.”
She said her office had paid taxes for 2014 for all their staff “including those in the provinces” and that after the payment “we sent FCC a letter with names, signatures of our employees and the total amount paid.”
She said they had duly received receipts from the council. "Why did they offer us receipts if we had not paid?” Thomas asked.
(C) Politico 16/10/14
