Subah Infosolutions Ghana Limited Deal Stinks

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Geroge Blankson - GRA Boss and Seth Terkper - Finance Minister
Geroge Blankson ? GRA Boss and Seth Terkper ? Finance Minister

Interesting revelations are popping up over the scandal that has hit the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

It has now emerged that most of the telecommunications companies whose revenue generation are supposedly being monitored ?electronically? by IT company, Subah Infosolutions, are not aware of any such deal.

Documents cited by DAILY GUIDE indicated that somewhere in the year 2010, the management of the GRA contracted Subah Infosolutions Limited,? a company owned by Joseph Siaw Agyepong of Zoomlion fame to ensure strict payments of revenues either in the form of talk tax or other statutory payments to the state at a fee of GH?4 million every month.

It entailed the doling out of a whopping GH?144million to Messrs Subah Infosolutions Ghana Limited, an Information Technology (IT) company.

This has kept many people, including analyst and industry players wondering the prudence of paying such a huge amount for virtually no work done.

But most of these telecommunications companies seem unaware of the activities and operations of the company contracted to monitor their revenue generation.

Veteran journalist and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications (GCT), Kwaku Sekyi-Addo has denied knowledge of any such deal with the said company.

Sekyi-Addo who spoke to DAILY GUIDE said ?If there is electronic monitoring, then equipment has to be installed on the facilities of the operator.?

Apart from that he noted that ?the operator will be fully aware because they have to co-operate with the entity that is coming to do the installation? for which reason he said, ?I?m not aware this electronic monitoring has begun.?

?I believe that when and if it is implemented, I will know about it,? he said.

Although he admitted to the fact that ?the law has been passed for this to be done,? CEO of the GCT insisted that ?the electronic monitoring will happen or will be implemented with the co-operation of the network providers? insisting that ?the two equipment of the parties will have to speak to each other.?

In view of this, he insisted that ?it is not possible that this monitoring can be done or can be implemented without the active co-operation of the network providers.?

Head of Communications at Airtel Ghana, Donald Gwira said, ?I am not aware of that.?

Instead, he said ?they?ve spoken about it but I?m not sure it?s actually being implemented.?

Although attempts to get comments from other telecommunications proved unsuccessful, Head of Communications at Tigo, Ghana, Linda Narh said she was unaware of any such monitoring of the company?s revenue generation electronically.

Documents in the possession of the paper indicated that somewhere in the year 2010, the management of the GRA which had George Blankson as its head, initiated the process to electronically monitor revenue generated by the various telecommunication companies in the country to enable it to collect appropriate taxes from them.

GRA, therefore, tasked Subah Infosolutions Limited to ensure strict payments of those revenues either in the form of talk tax or other statutory payments to the state at a fee of GH?4 million every month.

Facts on file

Interestingly, as at September 14, 2011, Subah, the bank balance of an Indian IT company, which was supposedly contracted to execute this project, stood at GH ?5,348,168.99 while it received payment of GH?2,689,854 from the Ghana Revenue Authority.

In May 2011, the company received yet another GH?3,039,041.00 from GRA under the guise of electronic monitoring.

But in July 2011, an amount of GH?5,118,133.00 was said to have been advanced to Subah Infosolutions with cheque no. 434171 bringing its balance to GH?7,057,521.02.

Six months later, in January 26, 2012 another amount of GH?4,000,000.00 was paid into the Stanbic Bank account of the company as VAT refund from the GRA with cheque number 268772 while the company was paid yet another GH?3,539,666.00 on May 9, 2012 as tax refund.

It did not end there, as on July 9, 2012, another amount of GH?4,250,000.00 was paid as VAT refund to the Subah Company followed by another payment of GH?3,800,000.00 on September 28, 2012 with a deposit of GH?5,000,000.00 as transfer from a sister company on October 17 labelled as TRSF. In January 11, 2013, however, the GRA again paid an amount of GH?2,040,276.00 from its Stanbic Bank account with cheque no 269272.

Interestingly, most of the board members, who have been handpicked from the Ministry of Finance, National Communications Authority (NCA), Ghana Revenue Authority, drew a retention fee of GH?4,000 and an average sitting allowance of GH?1,000.

However, Subah Infosolutions prided itself as a leading IT and Telecommunications solution provider in Ghana.

The company, which is a member of Joseph Siaw Agyepong?s Jospong Group, claimed its business strategy sought to explore a combination of world-class collaboration with leading technology companies for joint execution of projects and knowledge transfer through direct recruitment of skilled professionals as stated on its website. Further investigations are ongoing.

?By Charles Takyi-Boadu

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