Amidst Erroneous Audit Report… NRA Clears Judiciary

The National Revenue Authority (NRA) has defended the Judiciary of Sierra Leone regarding the claims made in the 2023 Auditor General’s Report, stating that the Judiciary has long devolved or transferred the collection and banking of all revenues generated at the Court premises on services charged by the Court.

The NRA has stationed assigned staff in all Courts since 2019-2020 that are responsible for collecting fees and Court charges. Those fees, before being paid by litigants in the NRA designated banks, payment advisory slips known as OTP are issued by the NRA Staff for payment with a bank slip before any single document is processed by the NRA, said Peter Kpundeh, the NRA staff attached to the Law Courts.

In a statement sent to the Master and Registrar by the Management of the NRA Non Tax Revenue Department, they asserted that those payments were made with evidence sent to the Auditor General’s office even before the publication of the 2023 Auditor General’s Report. Unfortunately, the NRA claimed that those evidence were not reflected in the final Auditor General’s Report for 2023.

The NRA admitted challenges to trace all the remaining transfers that were made through electronic smart money payment.