General News of Tuesday, 17 February 2015

Source: starrfmonline.com

GHc735m tax fraud: 290 companies to be prosecuted - Apaak

A Presidential staffer, Dr. Clement Apaak has said all companies indicted for evading tax would be dealt with at the right time.

Some 290 state agencies and private companies were found to have caused financial loss of 735 million Ghana cedis to the state through tax evasion.

These companies were also accused of undertaking fraudulent deals at bonded warehouses in the country.

Managers of five of the companies found to have defrauded the state would be arraigned before court on Wednesday February 18.

The identities of the companies have so far not been revealed by the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service.

Speaking to host of the Morning Starr, Kafui Dey, Tuesday, Dr. Apaak said other companies who have been indicted will also be tried at the right time.

“The wheels of justice grind slowly, when you are functioning within a constitutional dispensation like ours, there are processes and procedures to be followed.

“Because if you don’t get it right…and allow the requisite state institutions to do their work and you rush based on technicalities and other flaws that may occur due to perhaps the excitement to seek justice too quickly, you might end up even losing out and that may even be more detrimental to the state”.

Dr. Apaak added that the prosecution affirms the president’s promise to prosecute the offenders to serve as a deterrent.