By Francis Tim Mbom
Allegations are rife that the Cameroonian branch of an international oil testing service company, Intertek Testing Services, ITS, CALEB BRETT, with its offices in Limbe, is involved in a multi-million tax and social insurance evasion scheme.
It is alleged that for over six years, ITS has been successfully evading tax payments with the explicit complicity of some officials of the Taxation Department and the National Social Insurance, CNPS.
Apparently, ITS officials have time and again stuffed the mouths and oiled the lips of the tax controlling officers to keep silent.ITS, The Post gathered, is an international business concern with head office in London. It has is regional office for the Central and West African countries in Abidjan to which the branch offices (Limbe and Douala) in Cameroon are attached.
ITS carries out testing of crude oil or finished petroleum products for its clients before they are shipped to them. In Cameroon, ITS, The Post learnt, has been doing business with the following companies: TOTAL, SNH, COTCO, SONARA, among others.
From the very outset of the establishment of the branch in Cameroon in 1998, it is estimated that it has made close to FCFA 2 billion as profits but has been crafty as far as declaring their taxes is concerned.
From a document The Post secured written by the Manager in charge of Administration and Accounts, Jacob Biongla, to their Regional Manager in Abidjan, Bogoloh, on December 22, 2004, Biongla was his counterpart of gains they had made from 2000 to 2004 owing to their ability to cut corners with Cameroonian tax officials.
Biongla wrote in French," nous avons depuis l'annee 2000 jusqu'au mois de decembre 2004, declaré les salaries de trios employees: Dr. Kouadio- FCFA 354,805; Mbin Adrien, FCFA 150,000 et Ndacki Patrick, FCFA 150,000." (Our translation: We have since 2000 to December 2004, declared the salaries of three workers: Kouadio, FCFA 350,805; Mbin Adrien FCFA 150,000 and Ndacki Patrick, FCFA 150,000."
Biongla's letter to his Regional boss in Abidjan stated further that these declarations were false and for the time period indicated above, such below-the-real-amounts declarations of their staff's real incomes, had earned the company an illicit gain of FCFA 15.9 million; this at the peril of the State of Cameroon.
The erstwhile Manager of ITS Cameroon, Dr. Kouadio, who served from November 2000 to June 2005, told The Post on Tuesday, December 12, that his monthly salary stood at FCFA 1.2 million.
Biongla in his letter also stated that his 'false declarations', did not raise any objections from tax control officials; either by commission or by omission.Thus wrote Biongla: "Ces salaries qui ne refletent pas la realite et qui n'ont fait l'objet d'aucunne objection par les inspecteurs des impot lors du controle…."
Biongla's letter the enormous gains of some FCFA 77 million they had reaped for four years owing to false declarations of their profit margins to the tax officials.
"Il est vrai que le chiffre d'affaires a été pendant toute cette période minorée…à d'énormes benefices taxables au taux de 38,5 %; au moins 200 millions pour les quart exercises soit un impôt de 77 millions," he wrote.
(Our translation- It is true that the number of businesses done throughout this period was cut down to an enormous taxable benefit at the rate of 38.5 percent, at least a total of FCFA 200 million for the four years which would have yielded a tax of FCFA 77 million)
On the average, it is alleged that ITS Cameroon within the period 2000 to 2004 made a profit of some FCFA 1.6 billion and what it actually declared to the Tax Department was far less than the above said sum.
Denial
At about midday on Thursday, November 30, The Post approached the ITS offices in the vicinity of the SONARA staff quarters at Bota, Limbe. At the reception on the veranda of the office, the reception told The Post that the Accounts and Administrative Manager, Jacob Biongla, was not around.
"He is based in Douala," the receptionist said. He, however, said the Manager of the Laboratory was available and could talk to this reporter. A few minutes later Adrien Ndoumbe granted audience.
Ndoumbe would deny that they had been paying false taxes. He told The Post firmly that they had been paying their taxes regularly."If you want to know anything go and find out from the Taxation Department or the Customs if its true that we have been paying or not," he said. "The taxation officials were here yesterday and they carried out their usual controls," he added.
But when this reporter wanted to know about the staff situation of ITS, Ndoumbe suddenly became uncooperative and asked this reporter to leave immediately, warning that he should never set foot on their office premises again.
Besides tax evasion The Post also gathered that ITS was not a registered business concern with the State as the law of business stipulates.Earlier, when The Post visited the Limbe Magistrate Court Business Registry, it discovered that ITS only registered with the Court on October 26, 2005, with registration number TPPRR/RC/LBE/2005/B/040.
Ndoumbe told The Post that the fact that they changed status did not mean that they were not registered.
The Registry of Businesses said the courts took over the registry of businesses some time in 2001 following the OHADA law which stipulates that, henceforth, all businesses be registered with the courts. Initially the Ministry of Commerce was in charge of registration.
When The Post contacted the Provincial Delegate of Commerce and Industry for the Southwest, Daniel Pouma, he said it was illegal for him to disclose any information to the press about ITS's registration without prior notification from the said company or the court.
Nonetheless, he said he would understand that ITS had been registered since it has been doing business with prominent companies like SONARA, SNH and other big concerns.
The Post has also learnt that the Provincial Delegation of Taxation had got wind of the alleged foul game by ITS. It reportedly bribed some three Taxation officials, who approached the company for verification of its taxes, with FCFA 17 million.
The Southwest Provincial Inspector of Taxes, Etoa Kessek, on his part, has denied having any knowledge ITS dealings with the Taxation Department.
According to Kessek, they were rather at the moment engaged in a fierce war against corruption and it couldn't be his office at the same time to be involved in it.
He, however, said he had just received a fax message in relation to ITS and its tax situation and said they were going to carry out a thorough investigation into ITS' file.
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