Supporters of businessman Ibrahim Mahama are massing up at the offices of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) in Accra ostensibly in solidarity with him following an invitation to answer questions on a number of cheques he issued to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in 2016.
Mr Mahama, owner of the construction company Engineers & Planners and a brother of former President John Mahama is meeting EOCO for the third time on the issue this week.
He first met the anti-corruption agency on Tuesday in relation to an ongoing probe over the issuance of the cheques.
EOCO was yet to officially make public what they were looking into but Graphic Online gathers it is in relation to the cheques issued to the GRA with regard to some goods cleared at the Tema Port.
The Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Mr Kennedy Agyapong has for several weeks alleged that Mr Ibrahim issued dud cheques to the Customs division of the GRA and has subsequently been on a media crusade on several platforms agitating that EOCO should investigate Mr Ibrahim.
A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram Mr Sam George Nartey in a radio interview on Class FM said: “I think that this is much ado about nothing. This meeting is something that had been scheduled the last time Ibrahim was at EOCO, so this is not a new call…because EOCO had made certain claims and Ibrahim had clarified those claims which had to do with cheques issued to GRA.”
“There was an arrangement between himself and the GRA when he brought in equipment to work for government and as part of the arrangement, for the duty to be paid staggered over a period of two years with interest, those equipment were brought in solely for government work…and so when government paid him through the Ministry of Roads, then the deduction is made on duty, I mean this is standard practice that happens at the GRA.”
“Now the issues has to do with the new government came in and had to put a freeze on payments to contractors, Ibrahim’s company did have some payments that were due and were frozen and so the question is if you’ve frozen the payments, not just his company but all contractors, how then do you expect him to meet his obligations and so the dates for payments were due, previous cheques had been honoured and so it is not just one cheque, a number cheques have been issued to GRA and a number of them had cleared.”
Source: graphic.com.gh
