Four new local governments have received support from UNDP and UNCDF to improve transparency and accountability of their tax administration and increase their internal revenue mobilization. The beneficiaries are Kambia, Western Area Rural, Bo and Bonthe District Councils. Support included setting up the fiscal cadaster system and providing equipment for the valuation offices. Equipment comprises an ICT package and a projector. The handing over ceremony was co-organized by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development/Local Government Finance Department (MoFED/LGFD). The support fits in the process of scaling up the LED programmes beyond the current target local councils (Kenema City, Kenema District, Moyamba and Tonkolili District Councils). Thanks to their new business and property cadaster systems, Kenema City and Kenema Districts have been able to increase their internal revenues by 50% in two years (see table below).

Source: Kenema District Council Finance Department, December 2013

A similar trend was observed KCC for the same period. In 2012 the Council could mobilize closed to 900 million Leones. A year later, the revenue mobilized almost reached a peak of 1,2 billion Leones (see table below). Improved transparency and accountability are additional outcomes of the new system. For the first time, revenue collected by LCs are made public including posting on public notice boards. They are also accessible by the public on demands. The system also provides for grievance mechanisms whereby tax payers can actually question the amount they are requested to pay and have their demand notices changes eventually. These positive results encourage UNDP/UNCDF to extend the experience to two more LCs in 2013. TDC and MDC received support to establish their own systems. The process was completed in April 2014 for the 2 councils and first results are equally encouraging. Data available for TDC show that a total of 8,182 properties and businesses have been identified (70% of the estimated taxable assets of the district) with and expected revenue of Le 220,780,405 for 2014. In May, Le 11, 613,000 were collected (5,06% of the total expected) in Magburaka city only. However, the valuation officer is facing some limitation in terms of logistics (lap top and motor-bike) for filed activities). The impact of the Fiscal Cadastre system on LCs’ own revenue mobilization has prompted the Government of Sierra to request more support from UNDP/UNCDF to establish the system country-wide. UNDP/UNCDF thus supported the development and dissemination of a national training manual for the fiscal cadastre. Copies were printed and disseminated to all LCs.

Then the Programme supported LGFD to embark on a two- day (19-20 July 2013) training to roll out the Manual. 38 valuators from all the 19 LCs were trained on the official technics and methodologies developed in the Manual. Participants were provided opportunities to fully understand the various steps involved in ensuring an effective and efficient systems in revenue mobilization and administration, particularly property tax and business licenses hence improving on the fiscal sustainability of the local councils. Despite all the efforts and results achieved so far, LCs are yet to enjoy the full potential of the revenue mobilization capacity. The overlapping mandates of LCs and Chiefdoms are becoming a challenge as most of the revenues are collected by chiefdom clerks without remittance to the LCs. There n=many instances where Chiefdom clerks issue demand notices and collect taxes form the population on behalf of LCs without the latter being aware of that. And LCs valuation office will issue demand notices only to realize that taxes have already been collected. Efforts by both MoFED and MLGRD to address that conflict of competences are yet to yield tangible fruits. At the request of he Government, UNDP/UNCDF supported the training of all the 149 chiefdom clerks in basic of taxation, financial management and tax literacy in 2012. But this has not been enough to address the core issue.