Information Minister Challenges NDC, But ...

....NDC Advises Him Not To Dodge ?411bn GETFund Arrears

Information Minister, Nana Akomea, has challenged the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to urgently answer five questions for Ghanaians as to why, among others, it allowed the new VAT rate of 12.5% to be applied from June 2000 when the Act establishing the GETfund had not been gazzetted.

"Where did that money go?" Nana Akomea asked this and the other questions at a press briefing in Accra last week where he announced that NUGS, the government and other stakeholders would get together very soon to resolve NUGS' claim that there is a ?411bn arrears on the GETfund.

Two more of Akomea's questions to the NDC were why the 12.5% applied from June instead of September, as far as the VAT record shows? And what happened to the deductions for those months of June, July and August 2000?"

The rest are: "Who authorised the one billion withdrawal or transfer to Legon? And from what account was the transfer made?"

Nana Akomea also stated that the claim that all monies were paid into the Consolidated Fund or the Central Accounts is not enough.

According to the Information Minister, "even with this lame explanation, the NDC played mischief by stating that the monies, paid into the Consolidated Fund, was the source of spending for the NPP government for rehabilitation of the Castle and purchase of cars etc."

He also described the NDC's reaction on the GETfund arrears as interesting. According to him, NDC being the government or party in power until barely three years ago, should have been in a better position to shed more light on the GETfund issue.

Akomea accused the NDC of opting for mischief by playing up statements in the various budgets statements without any reference whatsoever to other authentic documents.

He said, "in their haste to be mischievous, as against being constructive, the NDC tried to paint my statement as full of inconsistencies in the event of which they brought out more questions than answers."

Meanwhile, the NDC has advised Information Minister Akomea to stop dodging the issue of the ?411bn GETfund arrears that the NPP has accumulated in two years.

In a statement last Friday rebutting the Minister's questions, Mr. John Mahama, NDC Director of Communications, reiterated his earlier assertion that the 12.5% VAT, of which 2.5% was for the GETfund, commenced in June 2000.

But because the GETfund Act 2000, Act 581, which was passed in August 2000, got presidential assent on August 25 and was gazzetted in September 1 did not have retroactive effect, all the 2.5% of GETfund VAT deductions before September were logically paid into the Consolidated Fund.

"We therefore repeat that the 2.5% VAT deductions for 2000 could only have been made for 4 months only, that is, from September 2000 to December 2000.

"Part of the Minister's problem is that he has been looking in the wrong place for his data. To get accurate account of the amounts due to the GETfund, it is the VAT Secretariat that must be consulted and not the GETfund Secretariat", Mr. Mahama advised.

The NDC Communications boss who rebutted the other questions raised by Minister Akomea, concluded: "The arrears of ?411 billion due to the GETfund is the issue that Nana Akomea should be addressing instead of making it appear as if the NDC Government is responsible for the huge arrears accumulated between January 2001 and December 2002".