The controversy over whether Subah Infosolutions obtained call data records (CDRs) from the National Communication Authority (NCA) or not could mean the committee set up to look into the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA)-Subah contract may have lied in their brief to President John Dramani Mahama.
The committee had four members from NCA, including the Deputy Director-General Albert Eninful. All four played a role in issuing a sanctioning a report which said Subah obtained and audited CDRs to justify why Subah was paid GHC74.3million between 2010 and 2012.
But the Director-General of NCA, Paarock VanPercy has since come out to deny NCA ever gave any CDRs to Subah.
Besides, CDRs are records of international calls coming into Ghana. The telecom operators generate it and submit to the NCA and not to GRA. CDRs are records of calls that originated from abroad and terminated in Ghana so they do not attract Communication Service Tax (CST) for Ghana.
Subah’s contract was to do real time monitoring of telcos billing systems to secure CST. So CDRs are of no relevance to that work since they do not attract CST.
But the committee, including four top NCA officials, told the President in their report that Subah obtained and audited CDRs. They, however, did not state what Subah found in those CDRs.
Secondly, the Committee wrote in their brief to the President that Subah contacted telcos to allow monitoring equipment to be fixed on their networks and the telcos refused. But the committee did not show any evidence of Subah or GRA ever contacting telcos on that matter or on any matter prior to October 28, 2013, after the Subah rot had been exposed.
Now government ministers are running agog with the content of the committee’s brief to the President, even though critical portions of the content have been challenged vehemently by the telcos.
Besides, the committee had three members from Subah, three members from GRA and four members from the NCA. But no telco was represented. And the telcos were also not invited to tell their side of the story as to whether indeed Subah contacted them prior to October 28, 2013.
More money for Subah
Meanwhile, as Ghanaians grapple with what exactly Subah was paid GHC74.3million for, Subah is still being paid more government money for a street naming exercise.
Local Government and Rural Development Minister Kwesi Oppong Ofosu has ordered all Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) across the country to pay moneys to Subah Infosolutions and Street Naming Ghana Limited for the street naming exercise in their respective regions.
The letter dated, April 30, 2014 and titled “Procurement of Office Equipment for Street Naming and Property Addressing Project Activities” was addressed to all Regional Ministers.
It required each of the MMDA’s to write two cheques; one covering cost for motorbikes in the name of Subah Infosolutions and another covering cost for other field equipment, accessories and softwares in the name of Street Naming Ghana Limited.
The letter stated that all MMDA’s must take note and “comply with the directive accordingly.”
