Commissioner of the Customs Division of GRA, Colonel (Rtd.) Kwadwo Damoah
The Office of the Special Prosecutor on August 3, 2022, released a report on its investigations into alleged corruption and corruption-related offences involving Labianca Group of Companies and the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority.
The report by the OSP among other things implicated officials of Labianca and the Customs Division of GRA for their various roles which saw the company
Read full article.that deals in the importation of frozen foods benefiting a reduction in the company’s tax liabilities.
One of the big names mentioned by the OSP is the Commissioner of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Colonel (Rtd.) Kwadwo Damoah.
The special prosecutor in his investigations found that a deputy Commissioner of Customs in charge of Operations, Joseph Adu Kyei, issued unlawful customs advance ruling for imports made by Labianca.
This led to the reduction of the values of intended imports between a range of 5 per cent and 10 per cent below the benchmark values.
The ruling was said to have been approved by Col. Damoah and did not appear to have been brought to the notice of the Commissioner-General, according to the report.
“Customs advance rulings are ordinarily issued by the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority. The OSP finds that for practical purposes customs advance rulings are issued by the Commissioner of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority. The propriety or otherwise of this practice is not the object of the present investigation, and the OSP did not find any probable cause to involve the Commissioner-General in this investigation at this stage. This is because the purported customs advance ruling issued by Mr. Adu Kyei and apparently approved by Colonel (Rtd.) Damoah did not appear to have been brought to the notice of the Commissioner-General,” the OSP’s report said.
The report also noted that Col. Damoah “acknowledged the disingenuity of the outcome by admitting that the applicants did not meet the legal requirements for the issuance of customs advance ruling.”
Though Col. Damoah sought to distance himself from the wrongdoing, the Special Prosecutor found that he gave his “tacit approval”.
“The OSP finds that though Colonel (Rtd.) Damoah sought to distance himself from Mr. Adu Kyei’s decision during his interview on 16 February 2022, he gave his tacit approval to the decision and the determination stood to the benefit of the applicants. Indeed, Mr. Adu Kyei’s decision would not have passed muster but for Colonel (Rtd.) Damoah’s apparent approval. The halfhearted seeming recantation is unhappily belated and does not absolve Colonel (Rtd.) Damoah of ultimate responsibility for the apparently contrived decision,” the report indicated.
The OSP further described the actions Colonel Damoah and Mr Adu Kyei as a portended “institutionalised culture of lighthearted unconcern regarding impropriety of action at the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority – which indicates a high propensity to engender corruption and corruption-related activities.”
Meanwhile, Colonel Damoah has challenged the findings of the Special Prosecutor.
Describing the report as 'hollow' and one that does not contain any substance while speaking at a Customs Division Management Retreat in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, the Commissioner of the Customs explained that, the basis for the OSP's investigative report was because he did not allow one Mr. Akrugu to be seconded to the SP's office.
Tagging the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng as a “small boy” Colonel Damoah said his implication in the investigation was an attempt to score a personal score.
"I even sent people to go and tell him that he is a small boy and I am older than him, 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.”
He gave a background to the rancour between him and the Special Prosecutor as having come about from his refusal to second one Mr Akrugu to the SP’s office.
“All that happened because he [Special Prosecutor] wanted Mr Akrugu to be seconded to his office and I said ‘no’, Mr Akrugu is a customs officer, primarily employed to do customs work. And he is to partner Mr. Akoto Fakyin in that office, Africa Continental Free Trade Area.
“He [Akrugu] deals with tariffs and valuation and therefore, I cannot second him to the office of the Special Prosecutor because he has a primary role to play in customs. And then he comes back through the Commissioner General and again I said ‘I insist and we will go by that and he has a primary role; it is when I don’t have a role for him or I can dispense with his services, (if) I have others to do what he is doing to do that I will give him to you.'
"So, I insist and he calls me to his office in relation to Labianca and at the end of it, he talks to me about this same matter and I said, yes, it is not the Commissioner General, I wrote it (the denial letter) go and check it and I have my reasons, he will not be released to you; he will be in customs. And then he goes to resign, he is given the position of Commissioner of Police rank and he is now in his office; and he goes to make allegations that Mr Adukye and myself, we hate him and they will deal with us and that is it – that is the basis of that publication," he said.
Commissioner of the Customs Division of GRA, Colonel (Rtd.) Kwadwo Damoah
