SLARI In Over Le19 B Tax Fraud

The Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI) failed to account for withholding taxes that were deducted by the Institute without supporting documents of payment to the National Revenue Authority (NRA).
This was unearthed by the protector of the Sierra Leone public purse Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSL) in their recently published report noting that the 5.5% withholding taxes unaccounted for amounted to SLE19,053,759.53 which is over 19 billion in the Old Leones.
“We recommended that the Finance Manager should ensure that receipts for the withholding taxes of Le19,053,759.53 are submitted to the ASSL,” they advised.
In their response, SLARI said that they are faced with challenges in accessing the ITAX system, even though several efforts have been made to the Commissioner of Income Tax to assist the Institution, but that it has been futile.
“However, we will ensure that the ITAX system is made available to us in order to facilitate the access of receipt on time,” SLARI promised.
ASSL maintained that the matter remains unresolved as they were not provided with receipts for the amount in question.