The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has denied the allegations made by Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, stating that Commissioner-General Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah has fled the country with his family.
The GRA refutes the claim, asserting that it is baseless and unfounded. The Commissioner-General is reported to be in the country, and the authority challenges the notion that he left due to concerns about being made a scapegoat in relation to the SML-GRA contract.
In a Facebook post, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa questioned, “Can the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government stop the despicable deception that they are seriously investigating the SML/GRA scandal?”
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.
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.Interestingly, the runaway GRA boss did not travel with his Service Passport with 2702 as its last four digits. A Service Passport which was issued to him as GRA Commissioner-General on October 3, 2019. This development adds another layer of confirmation that Rev. Dr. Owusu-Amoah has not embarked on an official trip.
The Owusu-Amoahs’ first travel destination when they left Accra a week ago was São Tomé and Príncipe, and continuous tracking appears to paint a picture of a family in no hurry to return to Ghana, that is, if they will ever return.
In the January 2, 2024, press statement from the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia presidency signed by Mr. Eugene Arhin, Ghanaians were informed that “President Akufo-Addo has tasked KPMG to complete the assignment in two weeks, and submit appropriate recom,”
Ghana Revenue Authority released a rejoinder dismissing the claims of the honorable member and a news outlet, ghextractives.com, claiming that the Commissioner is on leave and is set to resume on Monday, January 15, 2024
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Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa immediately responded to the rejoinder in a Facebook post, saying he does not owe the GRA any apology.
In a post made on his Facebook page, he wrote, “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.
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-week 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$100 million SML scandal. Nothing will stop us from pursuing our constitutional mandate of parliamentary oversight. Forward ever, backward never!
For God and Country, Ghana First.”
