....Tell Your Brother To Pay His ?60Bn Debt
THE DEPUTY Government Spokesperson, Mr. Kwabena Agyepong, has advised functionaries of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to desist from their campaign of sleaze and mudslinging against people who are now in government.
According to him, he has an inkling that because the NDC has been disgraced in view of the heinous things they did during their tenure of office, some of the party top guns or gurus have been trying hard snapping at the least opportunity to throw mud at other people.
?It seems to me that because the record of the NDC had been soiled they are always looking out for ways and means to lurk in corners to throw mud at clean people, adding ?I?m a very credible person, my player transfer was found to be an above board transaction, although the NDC prayed that the Gbadegbe Committee would find fault with me so as to enable them to nail me?, he snapped.
Right now, (former Minister of Regional Integration) Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi?s elder brother, Ato Ahwoi, Chief Executive of CASHPRO, a cocoa purchasing company, is in debt to the tune of ?60 billion and has not discharged his responsibilities to the three banks that granted him the loans.
According to Mr. Agyepong, the debts were piled through seed money loans Ato Ahwoi arranged from the country?s banks such as the Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd. (GCBL), Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), and the Merchant Bank. He therefore wanted to know if Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi had told his brother to pay up since the monies that were advanced to him, as seed money for cocoa purchases were the tax-payers monies.
?Because they have been disgraced, they always want to drag everybody down with them?, he charged.
Mr. Agyepong made the above remarks in reaction to a suggestion by Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi, the former Minister for Regional Integration and Co-operation to the effect that if the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wants the former Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr. Dan Abodakpi to pay a gift tax on an alleged amount of ?100 million he received toward his children?s education, then the IRS must first go for Kwabena Agyepong.
Mr. Ahwoi reportedly made his charge on Kwabena Agyepong in an interview he granted the Heritage newspaper.
Mr. Ahwoi, was quoted as saying that Mr. Agyepong, acting in his capacity as a member of the Executive Board of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), caused the transfer of some players of Kumasi Asante Kotoko and received $26,000 sometime ago.
Consequently, he asked the IRS to first demand payment of taxes on Mr. Agyepong?s $26,000 before demanding taxes on Abodakpi?s ?100 million.
Kwabena Agyepong has meanwhile denied that he has any tax arrears to settle with the IRS regarding the $26,000 transfer earnings.
Reacting to the story in an interview, Mr. Agyepong, who claims he runs four juvenile clubs, including Argentina Juniors at Adabraka and Madina in Accra said the Justice Sule Gbadegbe Committee of Inquiry Report is there for all to see and wondered why Kwamena Ahwoi had not bothered to find out whether the Gbadegbe Committee had indeed made any adverse findings against him in regard of player transfers during the committee?s sitting in 1997.
?This allegation is not true?. He categorically stated. ?I did no wrong?.
Tax cases are determined by IRS. First, they claimed it was a gift tax. Later the IRS said it was taxable income. I therefore gave it to my tax lawyers to determine and the relevant tax has since been paid.
?I?ve worked as a consultant at various places and worked at Ghana Highways?.
?My credentials are there for all those who care to know. I?m a very credible person?, he repeated.
The Gbadegbe Committee started work in 1997. The report is out. It?s a public document. Any one who cares for the truth must go to the Ministry of Youth and Sports and verify things for themselves. The Daily Guide has since done so and learnt that the Gbadegbe Committee mentioned his name (Kwabena Agyepong) only twice out of the bulky 200 plus document and recommended that he should fully discharge his tax obligations on the receipt of the $26,000 gift.
Speaking on Peace FM Wednesday, the Deputy Government Spokesperson stressed: ?I?ve actually discharged my full tax liabilities on the $26,000 which Kwamena Ahwoi is talking of?. According to him, he paid it in February 2001.
?I therefore find it very funny that long since the matter was dead, Kwamena Ahwoi should resurrect it?, said Mr. Agyepong.
?Go to the Ministry of Youth and Sport, there was nothing criminal about those transfers?, he charged.
He explained that when the issue came up, he called his lawyers (tax lawyers) who had a series of meetings with the IRS officials over the matter.
According to him, being a football administrator, a lot of monies came to him and a lot more expenses were also incurred so he did not know which constituted an income and which one also could be described as gift.
However, when my tax lawyers went to the IRS, they were told that what I received by way of the transfer ($26,000) constituted a taxable income.
At this juncture, he was asked by Peace FM?s Kwame Sefa Kai as to how much tax he paid on the $26,000 but Mr. Agyepong would not say how much he paid as tax.
According to him, after the IRS had come out with its tax assessment, he was asked to pay the due tax on the $26,000 income he had earned.
He added that ?In those days, the NDC regime tried to use the Gbadegbe Committee to get me just because I was bent on exposing he truth and nothing but the truth concerning the June 30, 1982 murder of the Judges one of whom was my father (Justice G.A. Agyepong)?.
?They did so many things just to frustrate me but I did not mind them?, he stated.
By instituting the Gbadegbe Committee, they (NDC) had hoped to grab me so that I won?t be able to expose those things they had hid (hidden) under the carpet, but I did not mind them. I want to know from Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi whether he has gone to the IRS to find out.
?In fact, I?m pleased that the former Minister has come out on Abodakpi?.
He should however answer the following questions: .Whether he still stands by his accusation that I had dodged tax. .Whether or not he has proof that the committee?s report indicted me.
Mr. Agyepong emphasised that the Chairman of the Player Transfer Committee, Justice Gbadegbe, had himself attested to the fact that nothing untoward, or complicit was found to indict him.
He said at a Joy FM ?Front-Page? programme the chairman of the committee (Justice Sule Gbadegbe) was asked by Kweku Sakyi Addo as to whether his Committee had made adverse findings against Mr. Kwabena Agyepong and he answered in the negative.
?Apart from that the Judge indicated that his committee found nothing wrong with my conduct?, stressed Mr. Agyepong.
Subsequently, he urged that if Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi has nothing new to say then he should shut up. ?Gbadegbe is there, he?s not dead. The members of the committee are also there, so if he?s in doubt he should check with them?.
The Committee was actually angling for me. The NDC showed by deed, that they wanted to nail me, but this plot failed, he contended.
According to the Deputy Government Spokesperson, because the NDC was bent on finding fault with him, the committee sat on his player transfer case alone for good eight times out of the 18 transfers that Kotoko had made. After it all, the committee found that there was a clean and above board transaction? he stated.
It all started in 1999 when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was in opposition, and I used to organise press conferences to call for another probe into the June 30, 1982 murder of the Judges. As soon as ?I started the press conferences, they used their mouthpiece, the Ghana Palaver against me?, he said.
