North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has said that the response of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to his claim that the Commissioner-General, Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah has fled the country over the auditing of the agreement between the Authority and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML), failed to discredit his findings.
Ablakwa said nothing will stop him from pursuing his constitutional mandate of parliamentary oversight.
“I have become aware of the GRA statement. Let me assure the GRA that I do not owe them an apology, and they surely are not going to get one. The GRA response abysmally fails to discredit the findings of my unimpeachable parliamentary oversight. Consistent with the revelations I published, the GRA has only confirmed that Ghana is the only country in the world where the President orders a crucial audit into a ginormous scandal and the head of the organisation under audit is concurrently allowed to proceed on leave and assisted to travel out of the country during the said audit — absolutely incredulous!
“Under another incorruptible President, this GRA boss would have been fired for daring to leave the jurisdiction during such a high profile national audit into the create, loot and share scheme he collaborated with Ken Ofori-Atta to perpetrate,” he said in a statement.
He added “The GRA release further states that Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Ansah is on a 6-day leave and will resume work on January 15, 2024. This does not add up. The GRA Commissioner-General left Ghana on January 3, 2024 — a few hours after the January 2, 2024 presidential directive of a KPMG audit. Leaving Ghana on the 3rd of January, 2024 and resuming work on the 15th of January, 2024 which instructively is the entire period of the promised 2-weeks audit cannot be described as a 6-day leave.
“These bizarre developments and blatant official untruths are bound to happen when a corrupt government opts for deception and a grand cover-up instead of an honest, transparent and credible investigation into the US$100million SML scandal. Nothing will stop us from pursuing our constitutional mandate of parliamentary oversight. Forward ever, backward never! For God and Country.”
His statement came after the GRA dismissed his claim.
The authority said the Commissioner-General was on a scheduled six-day leave which had been approved a month ago.
Rev. Dr. Owusu-Amoah will resume work on Monday, 15th January, 2024. While on leave, every engagement that is required of him or GRA in the Audit by KPMG is being diligently attended to either by himself or one of the commissioners, it added.
Mr Ablakwa while making the claim said that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assisted Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Adu Owusu-Amoah to run away from the country with his family.
“President Akufo-Addo must immediately offer a sincere explanation to Ghanaians on the circumstances under which the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Adu Owusu-Amoah who signed the dubious SML contract was allowed to travel out of the country with his entire nuclear family less than 24 hours after Akufo-Addo’s 2nd January, 2024 press statement announcing that KPMG has been tasked to carry out an urgent audit into the sleazy affair,” he said.
“My unimpeachable and irrefutable tracking of Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Adu Owusu-Amoah reveals that on January 3, 2024, he led his family to swiftly and clandestinely leave the jurisdiction. Exactly a week ago, the entire Owusu-Amoah family departed at 17:10 on TAP Air Portugal, flight TP 1527 from KIA-Terminal 3. Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Adu Owusu-Amoah used an ordinary Ghanaian passport issued on June 14, 2019, with its last four digits being 5283.”
But in a statement responding to him, the GRA said “Management of the GRA wishes to categorically state that, the Commissioner-General of GRA, Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, has not absconded as stated in the said publication. The Commissioner-General is currently on a scheduled six (6) day leave which had been approved a month ago. Rev. Dr. Owusu-Amoah will resume work on Monday, 15th January, 2024. While on leave, every engagement that is required of him or GRA in the Audit by KPMG is being diligently attended to either by himself or one of the commissioners.”
The management of the GRA further said it found Ablakwa’s publication to be a total misrepresentation of facts.
“It is a malicious, sensational, misleading and deliberate attempt to damage the reputation of the Commissioner-General, Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah and the GRA as a whole. We hereby demand an immediate retraction of the said publication from all media platforms and unqualified apologies from Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and ghextractives.com for the misrepresentation of facts.
“Management of GRA wishes to assure the public that we are committed to our mandate of revenue mobilization with integrity, fairness and professionalism.”