What I notice about corruption and scandals in Ghana is that very often, the public only takes interest after the fact – when huge moneys have been lost to sophisticated thieves, and then we now have to fight to get it back. And most often we never get the money back because things are swept under the carpet over time, after all the charade.
Often when the scandalous deals are cooking and you sound the alarm, people remain indifferent about it, either deliberately or out of ignorance, and they wait till we lose money before you see people jump onto the band wagon. If you don’t become a crusader, even the designated duty bearers will sit by and watch.
Those of you who follow me know that I have raised the alarm about the Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) contract, which former GRA boss, Julie Essiam single-handedly willed to an Indian company called Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The contract stinks by all standards.
In spite of all the noise we made about it, this government is in the process of doing something that is potentially worse.
As part of the addendums of President John Dramani Mahama’s 2026 budget, Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson is asking Parliament to grant TCS $10 million withholding tax waiver as they prepare to implement their “problematic” ITAS in Ghana. The Speaker of Parliament has referred the request to the Finance Committee for consideration.😳😳😳
- The local entity that is currently doing domestic revenue mobilization for Ghana, Axon Information Systems, NEVER got any tax waivers. So why are we giving $10 million tax waiver to an Indian company for a contract that is supposed to cost only $28 million?! In any case the Indian company is not the one paying for the contract, so why the tax holidays, when we never did that for a local company?
- Why are we handing over domestic tax mobilization to an Indian company when a local company has been doing great at it since 2021 – helping GRA to far exceed it revenue targets?
- The issue of data sovereignty also comes up; We have just taken our health data from an Indian company and its local counterpart because they hosted our data on servers based in India, and there were grave challenges, according to Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh. But now we are handing over our national tax data plus more to another Indian company.
- You would have expected that this government was going to look into some of the questionable deals Julie Essiam signed away before leaving office. But it appears the Finance Minister is rather rationalizing them and shortchanging local entities in favor of an Indian company with a problematic ITAS solution.
- We wrote to the Parliamentary Accounts Committee under James Averdzi’s Chairmanship. We also filed a petition at the OSP. While all these are pending, this government is about to give TCS $10 million tax holiday for a supposed $28 million contract for which they are not even investing any money.
- Just like SML, Public Procurement Authority objected to TCS on two occasions on the grounds of lack of proven track record and failure to meet local content requirements. KPMG also scored TCS worst among the top three that were shortlisted for the contract.
- So how did we even get to the point of giving them the contract, and now we are seeking to even give them a whopping $10 million tax waiver, even before they could do anything for us?
What kind of people do we keep electing to lead us at all?
The deal is cooking. Parliament has been asked to approve the tax waiver. This is the time to raise the alarm. 🚨
The Finance Committee in Parliament owes this country a duty to stop this in its tracks.
President Mahama has been telling us recently, about how the AI algorithm running Ghana’s ports was developed by young Ghanaians. Why are we then seeking to replace a competent local software developer that has helped the country to consistently exceed tax revenue targets with an Indian company, whose solution has been kicked out of four other African countries?!
This same Indian company was found guilty and fined for fraud in the US just last year. Why are they our best choice over our own?
Who is going to benefit from this contract and proposed tax waiver – because I doubt if it benefits Ghana.
