By Yusufu Sesay
The National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) in the ongoing bilateral budget discussions at Ministry of Finance Technical Committee one last Friday 13th October,2023 has estimated revenue generation of the Authority for the Financial Year 2024 amounting to Le306,555,170 ( Three Hundred and Six Million, Five Hundred and Fifty Five Thousand One Hundred and Seventy Leones ).
The aforesaid revenue projection is expected from the Authority’s revenue streams including Birth & Death Certificates, Adoption of Marriage and Divorce Certificates, Identity Services and verification System.
The disclosure was made by NCRA Director General, Mohamed M. Massaquoi in the budget hearings held at the ministry conference room at Treasury Building on George Street in Freetown.
Speaking at the ongoing budget hearings, the Director General of NCRA underscored the importance of his Authority in revenue generation as they generate huge revenue from various sources for services provided to the public.
According to him, NCRA revenue generation gives a big boost not only in financing its budget proposals but support national budget expenditures.
The DG further upbeat that NCRA saved government on annual bases a huge sum of money by tracking and reporting ghost workers, the deceased and enhancing payroll integrity by verifying the details of new employees.
NCRA Boss added that the authority has helped government savings of over Le28B through the payroll verification exercise which unearthed 1,450 ghost workers found on payroll in 2019.
Mr. Massaquoi made appealing case to the committee on the need to increase its FY2024 budget ceiling of Le5B TO Le56B so that they could be execute their mandate effectively and generate more revenue for government in FY2024 budget.
The DG said the services of NCRA have gone nationwide covering all 16 administrative districts necessitating increase in resources to enable them facilitate registering of vital events as they occur throughout the country.