Revenue assurance easiest way to steal from the State – Sam George

The Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam George Nartey has described the concept of Revenue Assurance as a conduit for looting the State.

According to him, some persons in the private sector in collusion with public officers have resorted to using revenue assurance to steal state funds after identifying it as a lacuna.

Speaking on News File over the weekend on the GRA-SML deal, Sam George Nartey, a member of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, condemned the practice and called for measures to be adopted to deal with it.

“In principle, I don’t think that revenue assurance is a bad thing. But revenue assurance has become the biggest looting avenue in the State. I will be fair and honest here, it is not peculiar only to this government. It is something that private enterprise has seen as a lacuna, uses the whole concept of revenue assurance to corrupt public officials to loot the state in connivance with them.

“We all heard how members of this government, Members of Parliament, today in fact one of them is a sector minister, Ursula Owusu. She sat on this platform and sang with SUBAH in a song, how SUBAH was wrong. It was signed under the NDC, SUBAH was a revenue assurance in the telecom sector. She said it was wrong, it was criminal and she sang a song and campaigned against it. She came into office and what did she do, she signed a contract with Kelny GVG and paid more than SUBAH was being paid.”

Commenting further on GRA, Sam George Nartey, has called for the State’s Revenue collection agency to be dissolved and reconstituted.

He contends that the GRA should not be permitted to continue operating in its current capacity since it has not fulfilled its obligations.

His remarks come after the audit assurance report from KPMG on the agreement between the GRA and Strategic Mobilization Limited (SML) was made public.

Following weeks of increasing pressure from Ghanaians, particularly civil society organizations, who sought clarity over multiple contract violations, the disclosure was made.

According to the audit results, SML owes the GRA GH¢31.88 million in unpaid taxes for providing services for eight months.

Interest that has accumulated on this debt is anticipated to be worth GH¢18.50 million as of January 31, 2024. Interestingly, none of these contracts had the permission of Parliament or the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

Furthermore, contrary to the presidency’s original declaration of only three contracts, the report revealed that the GRA had six service contracts with SML.

This disparity stands in stark contrast to facts that were previously released in a news statement issued on April 24 by Eugene Arhin, the Director of Presidency Communications.

Following this, Mr George is pushing for the dissolution and reconstitution of the GRA.

“The Ghana Revenue Authority in my humble opinion is a crime scene and is the biggest single purveyor of corruption in our public service.

“I suggest the dissolution and a reconstitution of the whole GRA. The GRA is supposed to be the watchdog in ensuring that nobody evades taxes and in this SML deal, the GRA itself failed to retrieve tax,” he said.