GRA's deal with Tata is 'immoral, unpatriotic and evil' - Prof. Stephen Adei

The move by the Julie Essiam-led Ghana Revenue Authority to hand over the state tax collector’s mobilisation role to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) of India even though the competitive bid scores indicate that Ghanaian-owned company Axon came up tops is an “evil” agenda being pushed by some vested individuals in the corridors of power, former Board Chairman of GRA Stephen Adei has said.

In Prof Adei’s view, the move is “immoral, unpatriotic and evil”, adding: “You cannot and should not hand over our domestic tax mobilisation to an Indian company when all the evidence from the competitive bidding process shows that a Ghanaian company came on top.”

The contract, Prof Adei noted, “Can only go to the Indian company” based on “corruption and moral depravity and I think that no Ghanaian worth his or her name should support this.”

He alleged that the GRA Commissioner General Julie Essiam railroaded the process so she could single-handedly give out the domestic revenue mobilisation role to TCS and its Indian-owned Ghana-based partner, IPMC.

“I want to serve notice that based on what I have seen and what I know if the government allows this Indian company to take over our domestic tax mobilisation, I will personally embark on a one-man demonstration against it,” Prof Adei threatened, warning: “I, Stephen Adei, will not sit down and allow people like Julie Essiam to sell Ghana for a song.”

“I strongly believe that Julie Essiam was specifically appointed as Commissioner General to execute this TCS/IPMC deal and, so, I am not surprised the way she is going about it,” Prof Adei alleged in a story published by techfocus24.com.

“But we must know that when foreign entities are in charge of your domestic tax mobilisation the corruption rate is very high,” he added.