The Board and Management of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has reacted to the investigation conducted by the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
In it’s statement the GRA said it had followed the media discussions and reactions following the release of the Report of the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s investigation into alleged commission of corruption and corruption related offences involving Labianca Group of companies and the Customs Division of GRA.
The GRA said it would like to state for the record that it accords the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) the respect and the dignity that the OSP carries.
GRA continually looks for every opportunity to improve on revenue as well as block any leakage. To this end, GRA is studying the outcomes of the report in detail and will not hesitate to ensure that per its mandate all processes and procedures that are identified to lead to loss of revenue or have the potential to lead to loss of revenue are blocked.
In this regard the Authority wishes to state that the comments made by the Commissioner of the Customs Division, Col Kwadwo Damoah Rtd. at the Customs Management Retreat on Wednesday 10th August 2022 on the outcomes of the investigation were made in his personal capacity and do not convey the opinion of the Board and Management of GRA,” the statement said.
It further assured the OSP and the public of it’s measures to ensure that the appropriate values on goods.
“GRA wishes to assure the general public that prior to the release of the OSP’s report, it had taken steps to streamline and improve on the processes of accurately determining values of imported items and products. With the inauguration of the new GRA Board of Directors in August 2021, the Authority took firm steps to deal with practices or procedures that had the potential of reducing or not giving maximum value to transactions at importation. One of such measures was to give a directive in December 2021 that with immediate effect no discounts or rebates are given on items or products at importation and to cancel all existing approved discounts.
As stated above, GRA is ensuring that all unreasonable exercise of discretionary power which will result in the loss of revenue will be prevented.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
