New Democrat (Monrovia)
11 May 2011
The General Auditing Commission’s (GAC’s) assets audit designed to determine if top politicians have paid their taxes on declared assets has stumbled into roadblocks, with House members Tuesday summoning the auditor, while President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf wants to meet the GAC for further discussion, according to GAC sources.
GAC sources told this paper that evidence of tax payment on declared assets is a legal precondition for contesting the scheduled October elections.
GAC’s head of Assets Department, Mr. Massaquoi, upon the House’s orders, met with its members for several hours behind closed doors Tuesday, but the details of their meeting were not disclosed.
Some legislators, upon receiving the assets audit notification, pleaded for more time to gather documents, but they are now demanding that the letter informing them of the audit be rescinded since, they contend, it was not written by the Auditor General, only by his underling.
Legislators also sought to find the legal justification of the assets audit, which is in the Act creating the GAC, mandating it to audit the government and its officials, sources said.
GAC recently began auditing the 2005 Assets Declarations of various public officials, including the President and the Legislature to verify the extent of their wealth and compliance with tax regulations.
As required then, presidential and other candidates, in 2005, filed their assets with the National Elections Commission, and the audit is aimed at verifying increases or falls in their financial status.
The audit is meant to authenticate whether those assets that candidates declared and filed with the National Elections Commission do exist and if taxes have been paid on them since 2005.
The pending audit, according to sources, may set the pace to determine whether a candidate may be eligible to run for or be appointed to public office.
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