Following the Special Prosecutor’s recent report on alleged corruption at Labianca Foods, the Commissioner of Customs of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Colonel Kwadwo Damoah (rtd), has advised the OSP to tread cautiously.
Reacting to the development at the customs division management retreat at Kumasi, Col Damoah (rtd) said: “I have lived a meaningful life and if he attempts to destroy me it won’t be easy for him. People have tried and I have survived and this one too I will survive it.”
“Three days ago, a report purported to be coming from the Office of the Special Prosecutor trying to indict the Deputy Commissioner of Operations and myself [but] anybody who has read that report very well will know the basis of that.
“And luckily for me, God is always on my side, before that report came that person had made a comment to some people who had come to tell me [that] he [Special Prosecutor] was going to publish [something] that will discredit me…and I sent people to go and tell him that he is a small boy and I am older than him,” Damoah said.
The Special Prosecutor reported on Tuesday that it had recovered outstanding import duties of more over GHC1 million from Eunice Jacqueline Buah Asomah-Labianca Hinneh’s Foods. The amount represents a shortfall in import duties the frozen foods company paid to the state.
In a 12-page report, the OSP charged Asomah-Hinneh with engaging in influence-peddling for allegedly taking advantage of her positions on the boards of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) and the council of state to obtain a favourable ruling from the customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), which reduced Labianca Foods Limited’s tax obligations.
The report also charged Joseph Adu Kyei, a deputy customs commissioner in charge of operations, with issuing what it referred to as an illegal customs advance ruling that decreased the benchmark values of the frozen foods imported by Labianca Limited, lowering the company’s tax liabilities to the government.