IRC LAUNCHES CoC SELF-VALIDATION APP ONGOOGLE PLAY STORE.
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 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tracktru. The CoC QR code solution will automate theauthorization of the printed CoC from SIGTAS (Standard Integrated Tax Accounting System) andprovide an effective and efficient avenue for the paying authorities to validate the CoC documenton presentation.
The software developer, Leonard Wanusim of Minsoft, stated that the application has two major software components. The first component is the Web Management Portal, which allows IRC staff to generate the CoC with a QR code embedded in the certificate. The other real-time software module is the ‘Track Tru-IRC’ mobile app on the Google Play Store, allowing users to validate a CoC document by simply scanning the entire document with the QR Code. After the document is scanned and validated, the result is transmitted to the Web Management Portal, where the IRC staff can monitor it. The transmitted data includes the GPS location, making it easy to find the people or businesses who do not comply.
The Commissioner General urged taxpayers to keep their compliance up to date so that they will have no problem obtaining a COC. COC is free and autogenerated if the taxpayers' compliance status is current. It is an offence to produce and use fake COCs.
Contractors and paying authorities are urged to download the new App from Google Play Store and start using it to scan and validate CoCs.
IRC has also provided a CoC Lookup on our website for paying authorities and taxpayers to confirm the authenticity of CoCs. See CoC lookup | myIRCFor information about CoCs, please see Certificate Of Compliance | https://irc.gov.pg/tax-tools/certificate-of-compliance-lookup
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