A private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, is optimistic that JoyNews’ latest investigation will help to clamp down on corruption in the country.
According to him, the exposé will grease the elbow of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) in dealing with corruption.
A latest JoyNews investigation titled Frozen Tax has uncovered how food companies are fraudulently evading tax payments at the Port.
Companies ; Labianca Company Limited, Ajax Company Limited and White Stone frozen food limited were implicated in the exposé.
And it was revealed that these companies by virtue of the misdescription of the of containers, the companies involved in the entire operation collected, name, and shame, underpaid a tax amount of ¢4.6 million.
The JoyNews documentary comes barely two weeks after the OSP published an investigative report which revealed that Labianca Group of Companies, a frozen foods owned by a member of the Council of State, Eunice Jacqueline Buah Asomah-Hinneh had a shortfall in import duties in excess of ¢1.074 million.
The OSP contended that Ms Asomah-Hinneh used her position as a member of the Council of State and member of the Board of Directors of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to get a favourable decision from the Customs Division.
The report signed by the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, alleged that Ms Asomah-Hinneh’s influence-peddling led to a reduction in the tax liabilities for her frozen foods , thus, gaining an undue market advantage in the competitive frozen foods industry.
Following the publication, Labianca Company Limited threatened to take legal action against the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) for issuing an influence-peddling report against it.
The Company said it has not been involved in any corruption-related activities.
Also, the Customs Division refuted the Special Prosecutor’s claim against some of its officials in the case of Labianca Company.
The Commissioner of Customs, Col. Kwadwo Damoah (Rtd) who was indicted in the report accused the OSP of malicious intent with the aim to discredit the Customs officers.
Despite this resistance, Mr Kpebu maintained that support from the populace could go a long way to rid the system of corrupt activities.