EOCO must investigate suba deal

Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Telecoms Chamber (GTC), Kwaku Sakyi Addo has called on the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), to as a matter of urgency, conduct further investigations into what has become known as the stinky SUBA Deal, saying, that the Committee set up by the government to investigate with the matter, had done Ghanaians, a great disservice.

According to him, either the deal between the GRA and Subah Info Solutions was irredeemably incompetent, or fatally fraudulent, solely geared at collusion, to rip the country of GH?74million.

Explaining, Kwaku Sakyi Addo said Subah’s claim that Telcos denied them access to their call data records could not be true because while the deal entered into between the GRA and Subah Info Solution was said to have been in operation since 2010, the Telcos were made aware of Subah’s existence in 2013, three clear years after they claimed to have been monitoring the Telcos, for the GRA. He therefore wondered how the Telcos could have denied Subah info Solutions access to their call data records, during that time. The GTC boss also wondered how Subah Info Solutions could have done call monitoring based on call data records from the National Communications Authority, stating that the data records from the NCA only dealt with international calls, as per the Body’s terms of reference, thus raising questions about the authenticity of records, Subah used for its analysis. Kwaku Sakyi Addo further stated that though the deal between the GRA and Subah info Solutions was for the latter to monitor and do analysis of local calls only, as per law, it went out of its work mandate to cover analysis of international call data, and yet got paid for it. He questioned the basis for Government paying a company so hastily for work they had not been contracted to do, while it dragged its feet when it came to paying other institutions for services that had already been rendered?

He faulted the composition of the committee set up by the Ministry of Finance to investigate the deal, explaining, that while a Party being investigated (Subah Info Solutions) was allowed at least three membership seats on the investigating committee, at no time was the GTC invited to sit on the committee either as a member, or to provide technical resource. This according to him has resulted in a report that does not reflect the facts.

Mr. Sakyi Addo also advised the government to critically re-examine its business dealings with Subah Info solutions, warning, that audits were supposed to be conducted by Persons or Bodies, with impeccable professional credibility, whose endorsement of a finding or findings could be willingly accepted by all Parties involved. He questioned the level of confidence Subah info Solutions could court from the Telcos, after engaging in questionable business practices.