Deputy minister for finance Dr. Gheysilka Adombila Agambila has conceded that despite the president?s declaration of zero tolerance for corruption, the government is still groping in the dark in its attempt to deal with the situation. Literally re-living the colonial jargon of the continent?s people being ? corrupt through and through,? he said the government, is now prepared to try suggestions from people at finding an appropriate solution to the canker.
The deputy finance minister suggested to the Network Herald that if the system had been able to even marginally uproot corruption, the country?s economy could have achieved the headway in the sub-region that would strengthen our commitment at becoming the gateway to Africa.
He regretted that even though a lot of education has gone into enlightening the people on the causes and effects of corruption by past and present governments, the situation is presently assuming an alarming posture. According to the deputy minister, government?s revenue generation for instance has not been the best ?because of the massive leakage in revenue collection institutions?.
Dr. Agambila named the Customs Exercise and Preventive Service, Internal Revenue Service and the VAT Service among the worse affected institutions. He said even though most of these institutions are engaged in collecting revenue, ?one can?t tell the location of such monies?, lamenting further that people in both the formal and informal sectors are not paying their taxes the way they are supposed to.
He regretted that the situation has gotten to such an intractable level that nobody seems to have a solution to it adding, ?it is like everybody knows that police officers indulge collecting bribes from culprits but nobody has the solution to stop them?. He said as a nation it is important for everybody to put his or her axe together to find a permanent solution to arrest ?this social canker that?s eating deep into our body politic.?
The deputy minister said that much as government would consider setting up a special brigade to deal with the situation, it has decided against any such adventure because it believes that would be waste of national resources since members of such a brigade are part and parcel of the larger society and could end up more corrupt than ever.
