'Seth Terkper Messing Up Economy'

Kudzo Akpabey, an anti-corruption campaigner, has accused Finance Minister Seth Terkper of failing to plug revenue leakages and mismanaging the country's economy.

Mr Akpabey, who is also a financial analyst, said Mr Terkper had failed to effectively mobilize domestic revenue to address the country's budgetary and development needs.

That, he said, had caused revenue leakages at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and promoted corruption in the revenue agency.

'Corruption has engulfed the very fabric of the revenue institution. Sanctions are not being applied to defiant staff because the very top is as rotten as a 'dead fish'. With the creation of GRA, it was expected that the new institution would come up with rules and procedures that will make corruption an expensive enterprise. On the contrary, corruption is slowly becoming endemic in GRA and if not tackled by the political powers that be, government revenue will be in serious jeopardy,' he told BUSINESS GUIDE.

He said the revenue leakages that cut across the whole tax administration spectrum had led to document falsification, smuggling and fraudulent accounting records, among others.

'The Value Added Tax (VAT), which is a consumption tax and paid immediately a purchase is made, is gradually dying in Ghana. In 2010, 26.4 percent of registered VAT traders fully complied and filed their returns for 12 months. In 2011, 31.8 percent; 2012, 19.4 percent; 2013, 26.5 percent and in 2014, 4.1 percent fully complied and nobody is auditing or bringing to book these recalcitrant taxpayers,' he noted.

According to Mr Akpabey, the Finance Minister was not concerned about revenue mobilization but interested in grants, donor support and bond.

'Does the Finance Minister know that the only way Ghana can come out of this economic doldrums and survive as a nation is to deepen domestic revenue mobilization and not our dependence on grants, donor support or bonds? What is the focus of the Finance Minister? Was the Minister appointed to be attending only IMF Spring meetings in Washington and Eurobond campaigns in Europe,' he quizzed.

The Anti-Corruption Crusader stated that Seth Terpker had failed to find a permanent antidote to the perennial depreciation of the cedi against major currencies as a result of heavy dependence on primary commodities – gold, cocoa and oil-.

He further called for the resignation of the Finance Minster and the Commissioner-General for GRA, George Blankson for failing to build a solid institution based on values that promote efficiency, effectiveness and integrity.

'We have to deal with the Minister of Finance and the Commissioner-General. They are not in control and there are certain powers that are controlling them. They need to resign.

'We find ourselves in this mess as a result of the predominant focus by the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, and the Commissioner-General on short-term revenues and insufficient focus on building systems that will guarantee substantial increase in tax compliance and revenue in the future.

'The Finance Minister should resign because he is not concerned about revenue. All he does is to travel and yet the leakages are there. If he fails to resign the president has all powers to hire and fire,' he added.

He disclosed that Ghana's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which measures the total production of goods and service in the country, was seriously understated by the Finance Ministry to give a false perception about good revenue performance i.e. a high tax/GDP ratio.

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By Nii Ogbamey Tetteh