Establish Fast Track Courts To Deal With Corruption – Citizen Movement to Gov’t
The Co-Chair of the Citizen’s Movement Against Corruption, Edem Senanu, has urged the government to set up fast-track corruption courts to help fight corruption cases in Ghana.
According to the anti-corruption campaigner, establishing such legal structures will help to curb the canker.
He stands firmly on the need for Ghana to intensify corruption fight and introduce digital systems to avoid favouritism when it comes to matters of national interest.
He believes such processes will prevent officials from taking bribes.
His comment follows a retrieval of GH¢1.07 million from Labianca Company Limited, a company owned by a member of the Council of State, Ms. Eunice Jacqueline Asomah-Hinneh, by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
The recovery of the amount comes after the OSP launched an investigation into accusations of corruption and corruption-related offences against Labianca Company Limited and the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
Mr Senanu attributed the development to the lack of a decentralised and digitalisation system in the country.
Although many legal experts have spoken on the case, the anti-graft campaigner, Mr. Senanu, noted that the incident should not just be tackled without taking a second look at the leading cause of corrupt practices in the country.
Other fraudulent cases
On 1 August 2019, there was an allegation by the Workers Union of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) that the political class uses their powers to ask their relatives to clear goods at the ports without passing through the rightful channel.
This led to the launch of Operation “collect, name, and shame”.
A team from the Customs Staff Association and two other labour unions stormed the premises of Labianca Company Limited to examine a consignment declared in the name of Ayax Company Limited and White Stone Frozen Food limited.
The objective was to verify the contents of 72 forty-footer containers at their premises following a tipoff that the companies involved had given false information to customs officials.
After an hour’s search, the team found out that the frozen food companies had concealed boxes of chicken instead of the Sardinella fish they had stated on their declaration forms.
On 30 July 2019, one of the frozen food companies, Ayax Company Limited, gave misleading information about the content of some twenty forty-footer containers.
In two separate shipments made on 26 July 2019, with declaration numbers 42019305804/0 and 4201305794/0, Ayax Company Limited paid a duty of GHc168,731.68 and GHc166,731.68 totalling GHc335,463.36.
By virtue of the misclassification of the content of the containers, Ayax Company Limited ended up underpaying a tax of GHc377.232.2 to the state.
White Stone Frozen Foods Limited also declared to customs authorities as Sardinella fish instead of chicken, the content of at least five forty-footer containers with varying declaration numbers heavily protected by armed men.
It was realised that the container with commodity code 03035300, 03035400 with varying declaration numbers paid a duty totalling GHS851,102.5, withholding GHc807,915.12, which should have gone to the state.
Ayax Company Limited and White Stone Frozen Foods Limited paid GHc1,019,834.18 instead of GHc2,204,147.32.
As the documents show, in just a single shipment, the two companies put together failed to pay taxes amounting to GHS1,185,147.32 million. At the end of it all, an amount of GHS4.6 million was disclosed not to have been paid to the government.