Checking indiscipline and professional misconduct:

Mopa Modeste hits hard at corrupt taxation workers

Some over 20 personnel of the taxation department who were found guilty of indiscipline and different professional malpractices have been sanctioned with suspension without salary; others have been sacked and put at the disposal of the dep’t of human resources of the Ministry of Finance.

By Mercy Neba in Yaounde

DGI, Mopa Modeste

From every indication corrupt and fraudulent personnel of the Directorate General of Taxation are in for trouble with their hierarchy, especially as the Director General of Taxation is determined more than ever before to intensify his campaign to identify and sanction all personnel who violate laid down rules of discipline and professional ethics.

                Modeste Mopa Fatoing on 1 December 2016 signed a decision sanctioning over 20 workers of the taxation department who were found guilty of indiscipline, corruption and fraud. The DGI’s decision was pasted on the notice board of the General Directorate of Taxation in down town Yaounde. We are withholding the names of the sanctioned workers for obvious reasons.

                Some of the crimes committed by the culprits included siphoning of collected fiscal revenue into private pockets rather than the state treasury; forgery and issuing of fake taxation documents; sale of fake stamps, desertion of duty posts etc.

                Depending on the gravity of their crimes, culprits were given sanctions ranging from month(s) of suspension from work with temporal loss of salary for the period of the sanction, to outright dismissal from the taxation department. Those dismissed from the taxation department were put at the disposal of the department of human resources at the ministry of finance.

                According to inside sources at the DGT, many more persons will be sanctioned in the days ahead given that other files of reported cases of corruption, indiscipline and fraud are still being studied by the discipline and ethics committee set up by the Finance Minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, under whose auspices the sanctions were taken.

                It is not the first time that the taxation boss is sanctioning workers of the department for indiscipline, corruption and/or fraud. Before the sanctions of 1 December, many other workers had either been served warnings or sanctions. Some of the sanctions were even read on state radio.

                It should be noted that because of long years of impunity and laisser-faire, a spirit of corruption and generalized indiscipline had invaded and implanted itself in the taxation abode.

                But with the no-nonsense and committed impulsion of Finance Minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, and the determination of the very young, energetic and workaholic Director General of Taxation, Modeste Mopa Fatoing, to reinstate and uphold discipline and ensure respect of professional ethics among taxation workers, things are rapidly and visibly changing for the better.