<<Print>>

The presidential task force tasked with the responsibility of retrieving monies from companies said to have defrauded the state has clawed back in excess of 10 million cedis from the defaulting companies. This was disclosed by presidential staffer and spokesperson to the task force Clement Apaak on Joy FM's news analysis programme Newsfile. According to him, over 700 million cedis was expected to be retrieved from about 290 companies but a little over 10 million cedis has so far been bagged from four companies. The presidential task force through its special operations unit headed by the Chief of Staff Prosper Bani uncovered the massive fraud being perpetrated on the state by some 290 companies operating in the country. A document cited by Joy News revealed a number of top companies, including state agencies, did not pay import duties before clearing their goods from bonded warehouses. The companies included United Steel Company Limited, $86,059,463; the Hippo Group of Companies, $48,440,486; Trusty Foods Limited, $20,890,556, and Movelle Company Limited, $20,489,556. Others are Dry Food Processing Company Limited, $8,214,537; Caitec Delta Limited, $7,439,870; Euro Food Ghana Limited, $2,285,603; B5 Plus Limited, $15,519,729, and CCTC Ghana Limited, $10,394,130. State agencies such as the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), $877,329; the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), $2,354,048, and the Ministry of Communications, $1,729,249, have also been implicated in the report. The companies were said to have connived with some officials of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to commit the fraud on the state. The taskforce was then constituted by the president under the leadership of the of the Chief of Staff Prosper Bani to retrieve the monies. Clement Apaak said the companies are so far cooperating with the task force. He said most of the companies which went public with a vehement denial of culpability are the ones making payments to the task force. He said by next week the task force will be able to provide a comprehensive detail about how much has been retrieved.