The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has recovered the sum of Le 757,387,163.00 (Seven Hundred and Fifty Seven Million, Three Hundred and Eighty Seven Thousand One Hundred and Sixty Three Leones) for the National Revenue Authority.
This recovery comes in the wake of recent press reports that the NRA has been unable to meet its targets.
The ACC recovery was based on an investigation which revealed that a fraudulent importer conniving with staff at the quay had tampered with relevant documents.
The ACC investigations revealed that although 7,362.2 metric tons of iron rods were imported by the business concern, it has only paid for 4,326.2 tons thereby causing the Authority to lose the cost involved for 3036 metric tons.
Following the ACC investigation, the importer has paid the sum to the ACC and the said sum has been forwarded to the NRA for payment into the consolidated fund.
A source at the ACC disclosed that the only reason why the Commission was unable to charge the case to Court was because the incident took place before the new law came into effect.
Under the new Act there are several strong provisions to deal with such instances.
These include section 48 (1; d) of the Anti-Corruption Act 2008 which provides that
“Any person who fraudulently or otherwise unlawfully fails to pay any taxes or any fees, levies or charges payable to any public body or effects or obtains any exemption, remission, reduction or abatement from payment of any such taxes, fees, levies or charges, is guilty of an offence.”
The swoop by the ACC to retrieve the said amount has been lauded and most citizens Awoko spoke to, indicated that Government should tighten the grip on these NRA officials at Custom as they are deliberately causing harm to this country through their selfish interest.
By Samuel John