The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) has launched a self-validation mobile phone application to authenticate Certificate of Compliances (CoC).
The digital product was launched at a small but significant ceremony at the IRC Headquarters in Port Moresby
Thursday, witnessed by staff and the local software developer, Minsoft.
At the launch, Commissioner General Sam Koim acclaimed this as another momentous achievement for IRC to become a digitally transformed organization.
The CoC is a document issued by the IRC to taxpayers who enter into a contract in which eligible payments are expected to exceed K5000/per annum.
Over the years, CoC fraud has increased. Investigations revealed that taxpayers and a few IRC officers have been colluding to produce fake CoCs. Since 2020, 287 cases of CoC fraud have been detected and investigated, resulting in 6 staff being terminated and three prosecuted successfully.
Whilst committing resources to continue investigating these cases, the Commission invested in
this product as a corruption prevention measure.
Mr Koim said, “corruption, especially at the bureaucratic and administrative levels, flourishes when ‘motive’ and ‘opportunity’ meet. We are addressing ‘motive’ by improving terms and
conditions and penalizing those doing the wrong thing. With automation and introduction of digital tools like this, we remove the ‘opportunity’ for human discretion.”
IRC engaged Minsoft, a local software company, to develop an application named “Track Tru- IRC”, which is now available on Google Play Store. The CoC QR code solution will automate the authorization of the printed CoC from SIGTAS (Standard Integrated Tax Accounting System) and provide an effective and efficient avenue for the paying authorities to validate the CoC document on presentation.
IRC has also provided a CoC Lookup on our website for paying authorities and taxpayers to confirm the authenticity of CoCs. See CoC lookup.
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