Company did not file tax returns

For the past few weeks, The Crusading Guide’s searchlight has focused on Caridem Development Company Limited, the company allegedly owned by Ms. Sherry Ayittey and some leading members of the 31st December Womens’s Movement (DWM) led by former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.

According to the newspaper the company took a loan of US$500,000 (?750,000,000) from government funds through Ecobank in 1997. Caridem, the newspaper said, facilitated and consummated the purchase of GIHOC Nsawam Cannery through the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) in a manner that smacked of fraud.

Further investigations into the activities of Caridem, it said revealed that the company had not been filing its tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – the statutory body charged with the collection of internal revenue in the country.

A source at the IRS hinted The Crusading Guide’s team of investigators that a report conducted on Caridem Development Company Limited and a letter from the Nsawam sub-office of the IRS had concluded that it (company) had not registered with it (IRS) and for that matter, had no file position.

A document the newspaper intercepted, headed “SUBMISSION OF TAX POSITION OF CARIDEM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LIMITED P. O. BOX 065, OSU” contained, a report on findings on Caridem.

It indicated that the above named file was to be located at any of the District offices of the Service for submission to the Director, Special Duties, Ministry of Finance, by close of work on 06 September 2001. According to the said document, efforts to locate the file commenced from the master list for companies but it had no particulars on the company.

It continued that the Data Processing Unit was consulted and that like the former, information could not be obtained. “The offices of the Taxpayers’ Identification Number (TIN) were also contacted and it had no information on the company”, it asserted.

District offices contacted, according to the document, included Adabraka, Achimota, Ashiaman, Nima, Makola, Kaneshie, Teshie/Nunga, Osu, Tema, Ho and LTO – but none of them had any information.

“The Nsawam sub-office however, provided some information, so convincing that the Koforidua office was called to confirm or deny. The information provided by the Koforidua office seemed to corroborate with the one by Nsawam.

“Caridem Development Company Limited regularly does business with the Nsawam Cannery Products Limited, and in fact, submitted bids to buy the Cannery Products Limited when it was put on divestiture”, - the document intimated.

Our findings established that according to available records, the only available data on GIHOC Cannery Division, Nsawam, was a PAYE file numbered KDE 30994. The last payment on the file was one on 14 December 1998, covering an amount of ?1,828,754.66 with receipt number B2422795.