Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta
Some say it is a sheer refusal to pay. Others say it is an embarrassing inability to pay. Whichever of the two may be right, the government of Ghana has not paid huge amounts of money it owes the Ghana Community Network Limited (GCNet) and West Blue Consulting Limited; a situation that has resulted in lawyers of the two chasing after the Ministry of Finance.
Ripple effects of the unpaid debts have affected the government itself and made it suffer some revenue losses in the range of amounts between GH¢300,000 and GH¢500,000 every single day that workers of GCNet stopped work on the E-Registrar platform at the Registrar General’s Department.
The Registrar General, Jemima Oware, has described the development as a sad one for her Department: “It is a sad day for the RGD and all our offices since we are not working and have not been able to make payments for any of our services because our services are linked up to this electronic system.
“We are not able to process transactions and we were registering as many as 200 companies a day but now since last week Friday, we have absolutely nothing to do”, Mrs. Jemima Mamaa Oware noted.
Though the striking workers were compelled to resume operations and the E-Registrar is now fully operational, the reason that led to the strike is still in place and a cause of anxiety.
Why the strike?
The workers said they laid down their tools to show solidarity with their colleagues who were laid off by GCNet but are yet to receive their severance packages.
GCNet, on the other hand, has said it is expecting its settlement package from the government so it can pay off the laid off workers. Government, on its part, continues to delay the payment which ranges between $120 Million and $150 million.
The two companies, GCNet and West Blue were managing the Ghana National Single Window (GNSW) at the country’s points of entries when their contract was given to Nick Danso’s Ghana Link/UNIPASS-ICUMS.
GCNet still had a valid contract which was to have been in force until the year 2023 but the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led government terminated it in June 2020, some three clear years ahead of the expiry period.
The amount of money at which the compensation or settlement fees for the unspent period of the GCNet contract is what was calculated to be between $120 Million and $150 million and getting it from the government has become like pulling hair from the nose.
West Blue Consulting has also been on the neck of government, seeking payments for debts owed to the company.
Lawyers of West Blue, the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) have been engaged in multiple dialogues at different levels over the delayed payment and it is unclear why the amounts have still not been paid.
