The Acting Accountant General Kebbe Kouroma has reacted strongly to allegations carried in an article of the We Yone published past Monday in which it was alleged that he is undermining the revenue collection effort of local councils by refusing to ensure that civil servants have their local tax deducted from source. He also said that government account is everybody's concern and that the public should pay attention to yearly audited reports.

"The office of the Accountant General is responsible to manage government's account and not to collect local tax", the Acting Director General explained, rebuffing insinuations in the said article titled "Accountant General Undermines Revenue Collection Drive", claiming that the office of the Accountant General should have collected local tax from civil servants from source on behalf of local councils.

Mr. Kebbe Kouroma told We Yone in an exclusive interview at his George Street office that during last year local tax for civil servants in the Western Area was deducted from source by the office of the Accountant General but that the office encountered difficulty in dividing the money between the Freetown City Council and the Western Area Rural District Council.

"Freetown City Council claims that over 90% of civil servants in the Western Area reside in the urban area and should have got 90% of the share, whereas WARDC claims to have about 20% or more civil servants living in the rural area", the Acting Accountant General disclosed, adding that at the end the money collected was eventually shared on a 80-20 ratio between FCC and WARDC respectively.

"This was a bitter experience for the department which we were not ready to accommodate for a second time", he stated.

Furthermore, reports from the Local Government Finance Committee informs We Yone that many civil servants were apprehensive to the idea of deducting local tax from source since most them are routinely transferred from one department/district/region to another and it would therefore be illogical to have tax deducted from a civil servant working in Freetown who is eventually transferred to work in Kenema and will be further obliged to pay local tax in Kenema.

"Moreover, it will be difficult to distribute the money collected to all local councils on an equal ratio", the Acting Accountant General again explained.

The information received from the Local Government Finance Committee exonerates the Acting Accountant General from any wrong doing since the decision that local councils should collect their local tax, inclusive of civil servants, on their own merit and ability comes from the LGFC and not the Acting Accountant General.

"Local councils should be able to collect their local tax that is why this office was supportive of the idea that local tax should not be deducted from source", Mr. Kebbe Kouroma said while emphasizing that civil servants are law abiding people and that many, if not all of them, have voluntarily paid their local tax as he brandish his own local tax receipt.

Commenting on allegations that he held series of meetings with people believed to be SLPP protégés during his recent vacation in London, Mr. Kebbe Kouroma lamented that it is unfortunate that certain people have misconstrued his mingling with Sierra Leoneans in London during his recent stay there.

The Acting Director General insisted that as a civil servant he is non-partisan and will remain non-partisan while he is still in the public service.

He however lamented that he had to endue unpleasant duress and intimidation from the opposition national chairman John Oponjo Benjamin Hirsch while he served as Minister of Finance in the past SLPP government.

Kebbe Kouroma recalled that he returned to Sierra Leone in 2007 to take up the appointment as Deputy Accountant General because of the love he has for the country.

"I am a certified chartered accountant who had a very lucrative job in the Diaspora and decided to leave all the luxuries and pleasantries to take up an appointment in Sierra Leone", he explained.

He pointed out that since his coming to the department it has been able to make remarkable progress in terms of keeping government's account accurate.

Reacting to allegations of delay in payment, Mr. Kebbe Kouroma disclosed to We Yone that he has instituted mechanisms to curb unnecessary bureaucracies and that within a maximum time frame of five days he ensures that all payments are made.

The Acting Accountant General again disclosed to We Yone his intention to make it possible for the audited accounts of government to be accessed, read, and understood by every member of the public, not excluding the grassroots people.

He intimated that apart from publishing government's account in the gazette he is designing ways and means for the wider public to have access to the report, this includes the effective and efficient use of the media.