Senators Question Legal Basis Of Their Property Audit

New Democrat (Monrovia)

12 May 2011

It has now emerged that the Senate was locked up for several hours Tuesday in a heated debate with the General Auditing Commission (GAC) head of Assets Declaration Department over the legal basis of subjecting them to an audit.

Meanwhile, the senate’s ultimatum for retracting a GAC letter written to them regarding the auditing of their individual assets as precondition for tax clearance needed to contest the scheduled October elections has expired.

GAC sources have hinted this paper that rescinding the letter and issuing an apology is out of question because the law empowers the GAC to audit all government officials and institutions.

Section 53.1 of the Executive Law establishing the GAC defines “Government agency” as “every ministry, bureau, board, commission, institution, authority, organization, enterprise, officer, employee or other instrumentality of the government, including commonwealths, cities and townships and other local authorities or politician units of the Republic…”

GAC sources said many senators contended that the GAC has no legal powers to audit them; however, as shown above, the Executive Law proves otherwise.

The GAC embarked on auditing the assets of politicians as declared in 2005 to ensure whether taxes have been paid on them, as the law requires.

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