Dafeamekpor threatens legal action over GRA boss's continued stay in office

The Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, has indicated that legal action may be taken against the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Rev. Amishaddai Owusu-Amoah. This is in response to Owusu-Amoah's continued tenure as the GRA boss without a contract extension from the Ministry of Finance

Owusu-Amoah, who is over 60 years old and, as per legal requirements, should have a contract authorizing his continued role as GRA boss, has held the position for about two years without receiving such authorization from the appointing authority.

Dafeamekpor asserted that Owusu-Amoah should not be in office as he lacks the necessary documentation to support his tenure. He emphasized that legal action would be taken against Rev. Owusu-Amoah.

"The collusion, the cronyism, and the politics are eating our system away. For this matter, if it is not politics, which country will this happen? And he too, it doesn't bother him to prompt that you must regularise my stay? People [like Rev. Owusu-Amoah] don't care any longer, but a day is coming when they will care," Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor said in an interview with Okay FM.

Mr. Dafeamekpor said the fact that Rev. Owusu-Amoah is still working and drawing salaries without a contract, amounts to drawing unmerited salaries, a violation that the Auditor General has cited countless times.

"We have written to the Board of GRA to provide information regarding some further details. We want to know exactly which month of the year his contract ended. How much salary has he been taking since attaining retirement? How much has he been paid so far? We have sent letters to that effect," Dafeamekpor said.

When asked what would happen if no response is given, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor said, "It will go to the Supreme Court. Because it is an appointment based on, first, the Constitution and second, the GRA Act."

At a sitting of the Public Accounts Committee recently, Rev. Owusu-Amoah confirmed that he was beyond sixty and had been asked by the finance minister to stay on with a written contract.

In the view of Mr. Dafeamekpor, the government (the Finance Ministry and the Presidency) should have taken immediate steps after the Public Accounts Committee hearing to regularise Rev. Owusu-Amoah's stay at the GRA. But that has not been done.