Reject Subah Report ...PPP Urges Ghanaians

The Progressive People�s Party (PPP) has urged Ghanaians to reject the entire Ministerial Committee report on SUBAH Infosolutions contract with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). Describing the whole report as �incredulous�, the PPP said the SUBAH-GRA contract failed to pass the test for value for money, hence its call for a complete rejection of the report. A communication team member of the PPP, Mr. Fred Anyan, said this when he addressed a news conference at the party�s headquarters at Asylum Down in Accra yesterday. The press conference was to state PPP�s position on the ministerial committee on SubahInfosolutions contract with GRA, which report was released few weeks ago �The PPP believes that the SUBAH-GRA contract did not pass the value for money test and it�s therefore a loss to the good people of Ghana,� he asserted. Flanked by some leading members of the party, Mr. Anyan expressed his party�s displeasure at the National Democratic Congress (NDC)-led government for losing focus of the mandate given to them by the good people of this country. That, according to him, has resulted in the height of corruption which has plagued the people in this country, thereby making it difficult for government to find its mandate given it as a governing party. Recounting the SUBAH-GRA contract, Mr. Anyan said the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RSGB) in 2010, contracted SUBAH Infosolution to ascertain the number of calls and duration and applications of tariffs related to domestic calls. He said the contract was to enable the GRA to charge the correct taxes on call traffic volume payable by mobile network operators which the PPP said it was in full support. �The PPP shall at all times provide support to any government effort to ensuring that the right taxes are paid through fair and transparent procedures and mechanisms,� Mr. Anyan stressed. However, Mr. Anyan said there were many constitutional and technical flaws in the contract between SUBAH and GRA. He explained that for SUBAH to have fully executed the contract terms, it [SUBAH] ought to have attached its monitoring equipment to the physical network nodes of the mobile network operators. That, he said, was in contravention with the legal framework of the Communication Service Tax Act 2008 (Act 754,) since according to the PPP, the Act was amended in October 2013. The amended Act, he said, was to give legal mandate to electronic monitoring of the operations of mobile network operators by government or an agent of government. According to him, his party could therefore not fathom why government paid SUBAH in advance for a contract which lacked legal framework. �Why did government sign a contract when there was no legal mandate upon which the contracted party could execute the contract terms?� Mr. Anyan asked. ��.how is it that a contract which was signed in 2010 and payment made, received its legal mandate in 2013?� he further quizzed. The PPP communication member bemoaned the posture of some government spokespersons, especially, Minister of Information and Media Relations, Mr. Mahama Ayariga, for rationalising the inefficiencies of SUBAH. What is worse bad about the SUBAH report, according to the PPP, was the inclusion of employees of SUBAH Infosolutions on the committee. The party could also not understand why there was no representative from the mobile network operators. Against this backdrop, the PPP called on all Ghanaians to demand accountability and transparency from government over the SUBAH-GRA contract by reconstituting an independent committee to look into the contact terms.