Report by Alpha Daffae.Senkpeni, [email protected]
Congo Town – The Township of Congotown, located between Monrovia and Paynesville cities, is enduring constraints as the Monrovia City Corporation is claiming to be the legitimate authority to levy and collect taxes in the town. Unlike Monrovia and Paynesville cities, Congotown and several other townships within Montserrado County are not captured in the national budget, so they are left to fend for themselves, mostly relying on the collection of local government taxes to pay staff and implement programs in the communities.
But an ensuing tension between the commissioner of the township, Ade Jones-Captan and Monrovia Mayor Jefferson Koijee over the legitimacy of authority to collect taxes in the township is becoming alarming and at the same time impeding the work of the township government.
The MCC insists it has the legal power to levy and collect taxes from businesses in the township based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2012.
Recently, the MCC has been issuing notifications to businesses in the area, informing them that it is the legitimate collector of taxes in the town.
“MCC is the sole authority to collect tax in Congotown besides the MCC no other organization has the authority to do so. If the township of Congotown is collecting taxes it is illegal,” says Pekeleh Gbaupaye, MCC public relations officer, during a telephone interview with FrontPageAfrica on Tuesday.
“This is a new administration (of the MCC) when we took over we met the agreement and we think there was this political arrangement between the township and the past administration but we don’t want to go that route.”
But the township, citing the Local Government Law, Title 21 of 1956 in a press release issued on Tuesday, May 22, argues that it has the power to “levy taxes authorized under the provision of section 630 of the Revenue and Finance Law.”
The release adds that although the township signed an MOU with the MCC for the city government to collect taxes on its behalf under a revenue sharing scheme, the agreement was later terminated by the township council because it was done illegally.
In the deal, the MCC was to get 70 percent of the collected revenue while the township gets 30 percent. But there were concerns that the MCC was reneging on the terms and agreements of the MOU.
The township claims the MCC failed to honor the agreement between 2012 and 2014, prompting the township council to push for the deal to be nullified.
“In a letter dated July 30, 2013, the Township Council, through its Chairman, Rev. C. Wellington Morgan, wrote an official letter to the MCC informing them that the former Commissioner of Congotown had signed the MOU without the consent of the Council, that MCC had not honored the terms of the MOU, and that the MOU was cancelled,” the release said.
Since 2014, the Township of Congotown had reverted to collecting its own legitimate municipal fees, it adds.
Recent moves by the MCC means it has reactivated the MOU without the knowledge of the township.
While observers express fear that the MCC appears to be overstepping its jurisdiction for the collection of taxes, Gbaupaye insists the city corporation has done no wrong by implementing “its legal authority”, calling on the Commissioner and the township to “take the matter to court if they feel unsatisfied”.
MCC PR officer argued that the city corporation has not been able to effectively collect taxes in the township because of obstruction by the township government.
“She’s (Commissioner Jones-Captan) always preventing us from collecting municipal taxes and people are reneging from paying taxes within Congotown, that’s why we’re saying her action is illegal and she should refrain from that,” he said, while admitting that the MCC has not been able to pay the township its 30 percent as stipulated in the agreement that was nullified by the council.
Congotown falls under the administrative jurisdiction of the Department of Urban Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Commissioner Jones-Captan claims she keeps the head of the department at the MIA informed about the ongoing upheavals with the MCC over the collection of tax.
Meanwhile, Jones-Captan, who also expressed her gratitude to President George Weah for maintaining her as Commissioner for the township until further directive, says her administration is in “full support to the promotion and implementation of the government’s pro-poor agenda”.
“The leadership of the Township of Congotown has always supported a pro-poor agenda through job creation for the youth, assistance to students and marketers,” the release adds.