By Crispina Lois Cummings
Parliamentary public accounts committee on Tuesday probed transactions between the Immigration Departmentand the National Revenue Authority regardingclaims in the 2010/2011 auditor general’s report.
Deputy Auditor General, Tamba Momoh, said revenue from the sale of passports and passport forms for the period under review was more than the amount deposited in the bank. He said there was a shortfall of Le 115 million.
Momoh pointed out that 102 diplomatic passports were printed, 225 service passports were made and the machine rejected 102 passports amounting to three billion, three hundred and eighty seven thousand five hundred leones.
He said some 1,200 passport books were printed but the revenue authority denied ever receiving any money during the year under review, adding that sixty seven million, seven hundred and fifty passport forms were printed but for which only three billion leones was paid into the bank.
One of the revenue collectors, Sama Sesay, said he had not received reconciliation receipts from the immigration department despite several requests they made.
He recalled that between 2008 and 2009 he used to send printed out receipt returns of passports to the immigration but could not do so after the printer in his office broke down and could not be repairedsince 2010.
He said despite that constraint he kept “manual records” but failed to turn them in to the immigration department.
Hassan Sheriff, MP and a member of the committee told Mr. Sesay that he had failed to meet his obligations because the non-working printer was not enough to have stopped him from giving in returns to the department.
The accountant at immigration, UmaruKakay, said he used to receive returns between 2008 and 2009 but it stopped despite several complaints he made.
NRA commissioner, Ibrahim Sorie Kamara, said they now have a policy that cash monies should not be paid to their staff.He said he had asked the director of operations, AbdulaiTimbo, to confirm receipts for June and July so that payments would be made to staff attached to the bank.
Meanwhile, the deputy auditor generaladvised immigration and bank officials and promised discuss the issue with them as per best practice, so that the necessary reconciliations would be made ahead of the 2012 auditing process.
(C) Politico 29/08/13
