Dear Editor – This is in response to contention on your paper, issue No.7926 (Tuesday 31st August) subject “Acting IRD chief under spotlight”, written by Alfred Sasako.
First, I would like to welcome any criticism in the media as an individual person, or any other person who have credible matters to talk about. At the outset, the report was meant to discredit my credibility and nothing truth about it.
The latest episode in the Solomon Star is the fine example of malicious character assignation of my work in IRD as an acting ADC.
I totally deny any malicious claim from Billy Lester Tagolo on the payment hold in IRD, and the content of the letter to the media.
It was zero relativity to the harvesting of beach de mer, in Malaita Outer Islands (MOI) or for any personal / conflict of interest.
Inland Revenue has process and system to follow on debt recovery and it is a normal process and practice to collect payments from third parties as means to recover tax debts.
This including part payment of tax debts and entering of deed of settlement. The rule applied to all businesses that have tax debts, and rest assured that I have issued a number of notices to third parties to recover tax debts.
I will not comment on that further as it is a confidential matter for taxpayers and IRD. Mr. Tagolo and his associates have every right to take that up to responsible authorities.
Hence, my job is to make sure non-tax compliance taxpayers are paying their tax and proper decisions are made when taxpayers ignore tax rules.
Further, IRD have rules and processes to follow to avoid conflict of interests.
In the previous Solomon Star Issue, I was also accused of colluding with beech der mer buyer to purchase beech de mer at Malaita Outer Island (MOI).
I could not deny my involvement to that, but I am not alone as a number of our community members are involved with the arrangement and I see nothing wrong with that. As one of the senior members of my people, extended family, and my community, I had an obligation to make sure my people receive the benefits of the sale of beech de mer, not just a mere piece of potato to my people.
Therefore, I totally deny any malicious dealing in that regard, and I fully complied with IRD rules in dealing with tax matters.
Further, I fully understand my status with the Solomon Islands Government as an employee under the public services, and as a civil servant.
I will not make any further comments on the tax matter, but I welcome any referrals as result of this article.
Polycarp Paea
Honiara
