Emmanuel Kofi Nti
The Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Emmanuel Kofi Nti, last week unleashed a busload of police officers and staff of his office to come and threaten the management of Western Publications Limited, publishers of DAILY GUIDE, with closure.
For the period that the drama-like spectacle lasted, the offices of the newspaper became a cynosure of the neighborhood; it caused an embarrassment to a corporate entity, which has over the years not shirked its financial responsibility to both the state and the community.
The threat, which appears to be an agenda by the Commissioner-General to throw the company out of business and render hundreds of its employees redundant, came at the heels of a number of payments made to the authority in the last few months – in fulfillment of its financial obligations, consistent with the company’s practice over the years.
A substantive payment made to the authority when the GRA personnel, including the police, came first thing Monday morning, was followed by a portentous warning: “Pay up or we shut down the company when we return with TV crews and other media.”
A source at the newspaper house can confirm that the Commissioner-General is determined to cause further embarrassment to DAILY GUIDE.
A number of threatening correspondences preceded last week’s surprise attack by red-eyed personnel whose orders from their sender were simple: “Shut down the DAILY GUIDE,” despite the company’s agents engaging the government institution the previous working day.
The Commissioner-General is said to have vowed to chase all private establishments with outstanding monies to pay into the government chest, his riveted attention on DAILY GUIDE said to be intended to underscore his brusqueness, regardless of the consequences.
Management of the company was taken aback by the manner in which the correspondence from the authority was crafted and then the threatening posture of the staff, not forgetting the hostility of the police who descended upon the premises of DAILY GUIDE menacingly to execute the diktat of the Commissioner-General.
Indeed, a management staffer was to remark later that “But for my quick intervention, DAILY GUIDE would have been out of circulation on the day following their descent on the premises.”
He added, “It might appear the Commissioner-General has an axe to grind with DAILY GUIDE, especially since other entities are not suffering this level of hostility and embarrassment.”
Reached for his comment, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Western Publications Group, Kwame Blay, said, “I am amazed at the threats from the GRA to an entity which has never failed in meeting its financial obligations to the state, albeit sometimes in installments. We consider such payments as obligatory, something incumbent upon every responsible entity such as ours. We therefore do our best to incessantly reduce the burden of indebtedness periodically. To treat us as though we hardly meet such obligations and even threatening us in the manner in which the Commissioner-General and his assigns did, considering the amount involvedand. The fact that we were notified of this indebtedness only weeks ago is to say the least, unfortunate in a decent corporate world where arbitrariness has no place. We have dealt with the GRA since we commenced operations and would do all we can to support it in its revenue mobilization drive, the dividends of which we appreciate as much as he does.”
Mr. Blay continued, “Whilst we ask for and expect no level of favour or consideration on this issue, we deem the agency’s aggressive and abrasive reaction to be disproportionate by far to the amount, which in itself has been disputed between our company and the authority.”
The Commissioner General who has a background in taxation, statistics and rural banking, assumed the post early this year and seems geared to impress powers-that-be or is being nudged by unseen hands.
By A.R. Gomda