By: Mohamed Sahr
During the course of the official handing over ceremony, the newly appointed Commissioner General of National Revenue Authority (NRA) has assured of making positive results in his entire spell of tenure last week at the institution’s head office in Freetown.
Making his remark, Ibrahim Brima Swarray, Commissioner General of National Revenue Authority (NRA) said administration and board management were not new phenomenon for him; noting that institutional strength remained his preferential exhibition among number of other things. Swarray mentioned that he would work in-line-skate with the structure of the past administration regardless of how hard and mind-numbing the work would offer. “I like to embark on difficult tasks and I enjoy doing them because I am sure of making results count,” Commissioner General assured.
He revealed that he knew the target of NRA as the breadbasket of the country’s economy; emphasizing that he would not accept international actors telling him of what to do towards the stabilization of the revenue system in Sierra Leone.
NRA Boss hoped of taking the administration of the institution with an open hand of which he expected all the workers to embrace him and continuing working as a team in order to scale the country to more enviable heights.
He urged the outgoing Commissioner General of having a constructive dialogue around the progress of NRA as well have a bit of his experience as a way of actualizing brighter paths in his new administration. “For me to succeed, is encumbent as the predecessor therefore, I am ready to bank on you for your shared experience,” Swarray said.
Dr. Samuel Jiboa, outgoing Commissioner General of the National Revenue Authority thanked President Bio for according him such opportunity for the past five years. He appreciated the Board and Management for showcasing high level of professionalism throughout his spell.
Dr. Jibao highlighted a number of achievements ranging from timely payment of staff salaries, acquisition and protection of asset, implementation of revenue administration reforms, open door Infrastructural Development Plan, five years fund for staff integrity system, massive revenue refund, streamlining of a lot of systems like Integrated Tax Administration System for domestic tax processes and transaction, moving from Asecuda ++ to Asecuda one word through an electronic single window, deployment of electronic devices across the country, growing of domestic revenue over a trillion year-in and year-out among others.
He furthered that in the first quarter of 2023, the domestic revenue was at 41% than the previous year’s especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The fiscal year of 2021 recorded its highest level of gains which accounted for 6.9 trillion domestic revenue,” Dr. Jibao said.
He admitted that NRA was faced with challenges including implementation of reforms, changing management, weak national Information Communication Technology infrastructure to name but three.
