Monrovia-FrontPageAfrica has gathered that a helicopter with seating capacity of four passengers jointly owned by Air Med and a South African pilot has been prevented from leaving Liberia due to unpaid taxes due the Government of Liberia.
Elfrieda Tamba, Commissioner General of the Liberia Revenue Authority confirmed to FPA that the South African Pilot, is indebted to the Government of Liberia and as such the helicopter cannot be allowed to leave until the tax obligations are settled.
The helicopter is currently grounded at the James Springs Airfield in Sinkor and according to investigation the LRA on Friday seized the helicopter.
Air Med is a business entity established under the law of Liberia that is engaged in medical evacuation of patients from one concession area and also provides general medical services to patients.
Commissioner General Tamba told FPA “Helicopter being detained use to belong to Segran Govender (South African Pilot) or an entity controlled by him. He owes the GoL taxes for which he pledged his assets and after-acquired assets including cash. Removing the helicopter would diminish the collateral jeopardizing GoL. LRA was never notified of the transfer of any pledged asset. We thus moved to detain the helicopter using the statutory jeopardy power given us and subsequently petitioned the Tax
Court to detain the helicopter. A hearing is scheduled for next week”-
LRA officials backed by court officers from the Tax Court at the Temple of Justice walked to the James Springs Airfield Friday afternoon and placed a writ of seizure on the blue color helicopter.
“The company Air Med operating this helicopter owes government in taxes and that there is attempt to smuggle it out of this country so we are taking the necessary measures to avoid government losing these taxes” said one LRA official who begged not to be named.
According to the LRA, copy of the writ of seizure has been turned over to the authority of the Liberia Domestic Airport Authority informing them of the decision by the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA).
The writ of seizure from the Tax Court states “the Sheriff of this court is hereby ordered to seize the property, blue helicopter with white stripes marked 25-HHI of the herein named defendant”.
Another part of the writ states “you are further ordered to execute this writ of seizure and make your official returns on or before the 29th day of June 2016 while the defendant is to appear on the 20th of June 2016 to answer to the allegations at the hour of 10:30 am”.
LRA says that Air Med operated from the period December 2012 to June 2014 and has failed and refused to file and pay taxes in an amount of over US$201,364.14 due the government.
“Petitioner says that respondent is intending to leave the country by smuggling out of the bailiwick of Liberia its Blue Helicopter with white stripes marked ZS-HHI thereby denying the Republic of Liberia of its legitimate taxes that is in jeopardy” states the writ of seizure.
The LRA also says the writ of seizure is in accordance with the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) Code Section 65 (a) and the defendant is to appear on June 20 to answer to the allegations made by the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA).
Sable Mining connected?
One source confided in FPA that the aircraft is said to be jointly operated by Air Med and Sable mining. Sable Mining is already subject of criminal investigation in Liberia.
Sable Mining, its CEO Andrew Grooves and Mr. Heine van Niekerk who was the COO for Sable in West Africa have been indicated along with others on multiple criminal charges including economic sabotage, criminal facilitation, bribery, criminal conspiracy, money laundering, etc as a result of a report released by international Watchdog Global Witness.
Global Witness alleged in its report the ‘Deceivers’ that Sable paid nearly US$1 million to bribe Liberian government officials to made changes to the Public Procurement and Concession Law of Liberia to grant the mining company the exclusive right to mine the Wologizi Mountain in Lofa County.
Following his indictment, Grooves angrily reacted describing Liberia as a corrupt country, where he said there is no justice, saying the indictment is politically motivated.
“Mr. Groves believes that these allegations are politically motivated ahead of the imminent presidential elections, and are specifically designed to undermine the candidacy of Varney Sherman, one of Liberia’s most respected lawyers, and Alex Tyler, the speaker of parliament and also a presidential candidate. Mr. Sherman is a highly respected and preeminent member of Liberian society and it is beyond comprehension that he would be involved in the matters in question”, stated the Sable CEO.
Grooves declared that the justice system in Liberia is flawed and there can be no transparency.
“It is difficult to see how, in a country with a deeply flawed justice system and an appalling record for corruption, a task force set up only 4 weeks ago can already have undertaken a thorough review of the allegations first raised by Global Witness and then perpetuated in the world’s press. To date, no evidence has been presented to support these allegations against Mr. Groves. During the period in question, Mr. Heine van Niekerk was the COO for Sable in West Africa and was given full responsibility to manage operations in Liberia”, stated Groves.
He outlined that it is difficult to have faith that any inquiry will be transparent or fair given the backdrop of Liberia being one of the world’s most corrupt countries, the task force led by convicted felons and people he referred to as misfits lacking the credentials to mount a legitimate, impartial, fully transparent investigation.
While the government has said it is making efforts to prosecute Sable Mining and its CEO along with others, preventing the helicopter jointly owned by the company from leaving is another legal wrangle that the company is expected to face in an already unfriendly environment.
The Task force prosecuting Mr. Grooves and others has dispatched a team to London to gather further evidence to assist with prosecution.
Kennedy L. Yangian, [email protected]