BANJUL - The head of the Gambia Revenue Authority and 11 of its most senior officers have been charged over lost tax revenue of more than 50 million euros ($62 million), a police source said Friday.
GRA chief Bakary Sanyang and the other officials were arrested on Thursday and charged with economic crime over the losses, the source said.
They were currently being held in prison.
The arrests came a day after a committee investigating tax evasion and corruption delivered its final report to President Yahya Jammeh.
It revealed that that the government had lost more than two billion Gambian dalasis (50 million euros) from 50 selected taxpayers who had been re-assessed on their taxes.
The report stated that the officers, all of whom were named in the report, were criminally liable for the losses.
It was Jammeh himself who ordered the investigation last November.
"As long as you are on the wrong side of the law, we will deal with you," he said shortly after receiving the report.
"I don't care (if you are) an uncle, cousin, brother or whatever. Corruption, we will fight it tooth and nail."
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