I do not owe GRA an apology – Ablakwa

On January 12, 2024, 12:16 PM

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has refused to apologise to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for accusing its Commissioner-General of absconding over investigations into the GRA and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) deal.

The MP alleged that Rev. Dr Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah and his entire nuclear family, with the assistance of the president, had absconded Ghana despite the ongoing investigation into the alleged $100 million corruption in the deal.

However, the GRA debunked the claims, explaining that the Dr Owusu-Amoah was on leave.

A statement from the authority said the scheduled six-day leave had been approved a month ago and the Commissioner-General was expected back to the office on January 15, 2024.

The statement further described the MP’s claims as malicious and demanded an apology from him

“We hereby demand an immediate retraction of the said publication from all media platforms and an unqualified apology from Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and ghextractives.com for the misrepresentation of facts,” GRA said.

Reacting to this, Mr. Ablakwa said he would not apologize to the GRA.

He added that their response failed to address his findings on parliamentary oversight.

“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,” he insisted.

The MP also insisted the 6-day leave explanation does not add up as Dr Owusu-Amoah left Ghana on January 3, 2024.

“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,” he said.