Director of Operations for pressure group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), Abu Ramadan, is asking government to provide reasons for the exoneration of technology company, Subah Infosolutions Ghana Limited of any charges.
“We want to challenge government with this particular Subah matter to tell us on what basis or what grounds that government arrived at the decision that Subah can’t be blamed or Subah did the rightful duty,” he insisted.
A technical committee set up by government to investigate the agreement between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Subah Infosolutions Ghana Limited exonerated Subah, describing the contract as valid.
According to the committee, the decision to exonerate Subah was based among other things, “on the legitimacy and capacity of the board chairman to sign such agreements”.
The committee further explained that as part of the procurement process, the National Communication Authority (NCA) carried out a technical evaluation and “confirmed that Subah had the technical expertise and equipment for carrying out the task of conducting revenue assurance on payment of communication service tax by the telecommunication companies”.
But speaking to Citi News, Mr. Ramadan said the report leaves much to be desired.
“Money has gone down the drain, pesewas has gone down the drain as we have all seen in these last years. For that matter, AFAG won’t accept this, ” he stressed.
Subah was contracted by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in 2010 to provide monitor domestic call data records for the collection of appropriate taxes from telecommunication companies in the country.
The move was in accordance with the communication services tax (Amendment) Act, 2013 (Act 864), which requires telecommunication companies to grant the Minister of Finance physical access to their facilities to monitor their call data records for tax purposes.
The GRA, acting on behalf of the Minister of Finance, had contracted Subah to undertake that task, with an agreement to pay Subah 13.5 per cent of incremental revenue collected thereof.
Government in October last year announced the commencement of an investigation into the payment which attracted huge public outcry.