Gov't to investigate alleged tax fraud in Meme

The Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Meme, Koulbout Aman David will in the days ahead open up investigations into alleged mafia that has hit the tax department in Meme.

Reports hold that the office of the SDO can no longer contain the myriad of complaints flowing into his office from business and economic operators, based in the division on the manner in which their taxes have been increased with tax category witnessing the same discriminate changes without any clear cut explanation from the Meme taxation boss, Tsafack Ntipotop Guilaume.

The economic operators complain that taxation officials have seemingly taken a decision to kill their initiatives in setting up business activities which have gone a long way to offer employment to many Cameroonian Youth.

“We see our businesses closing down in the days ahead if the taxation department is not called to order”, the economic operators declared.

During the launching of the 2015 budget for Meme Division at the Kumba City Council Hall Wednesday January 21, 2015, the SDO disclosed that in order to maintain a peaceful and harmonious business climate in the Division and see to it that confidence reign exist between the taxation department and the business world, it was necessary that an investigation be open and the results communicated to the concerns.

Talking to the Press on the allegations, the Meme taxation boss, Tsafack Guiluame, maintained that taxes are increased following government recommendation and the manner in which the state envisages the economy.

He hinted that his office is doing its best to see that economic and business operators within the Division are well treated. At the level of discriminate categorization of taxes, the Meme taxation boss opined that all his actions are contained in the directives from his hierarchy.

Drop in budget Despite the fact that the 2015 state budget for Meme stands at FCFA 1,261, 184,064 as against, FCFA 1,843,343,080 for 2014, thus a significant drop of about FCFA 5, 821, 149, 016, the SDO, disclosed that FCFA 705,478,000 has been earmarked for various projects while FCFA 555,706,064 stands for recurrent expenditure.

For the effective implementation of the 2015 state budget for Meme, the SDO, narrated that they will be zero tolerance from any collaborator or contractor, who compromises, the execution.

To achieve a successful execution of the investment budget, stakeholders were reminded of the fact that, public contract bidders have to show proof of probity and credibility as the notion of lowest bidders insinuates amateurism, a source of poor quality realization and that the finance services respect the 72 hours deadline for the treatment of files, by putting up a synoptic table indicating treatment of file with precision on projected payments monthly.