The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has frozen the assets of the former Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John, as it continues investigations into allegations of unlawful acquisition of state lands.

The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and industry wants Ghana to introduce the tier module in its corporate taxing regime which allows for local companies to file their taxes in different percentages depending on their operational size.

Beginning next year, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) will replace Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) with the Ghana Card numbers.

This will enable the authority to access information from other government agencies, including the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), the Driver ad Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA), the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and the Lands Commission, to enhance its operations.

At the peak of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s first term, he had sworn in more than 126 ministers and deputy ministers. Some of them resigned and were replaced.

They took the sacred Oath of Ministers, to “uphold, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.”

Issues of irregularities in the Auditor-General’s Report have witnessed progressive decline in the last couple of years. This notwithstanding, breaches in procurement, contract, payroll, cash and statutory deduction still rank high. Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, who disclosed this on the Uniiq Breakfast Drive said the trend is worrying and called for concerted efforts to stem the tide due to the adverse effects on national development.

”Irregularity levels are dropping or they are reducing. From 2018, it was GHC 29 million, 2019, it came to GHC 19.5 million and 2020, it was GHC12.8 million. GHC12.8 million is a lot of money; looking at the money we need in this country; we should not have allowed that to happen. When you look at the composition, cash irregularities still run high. Cash irregularity constitutes over 8%, with GHC 11.2 million procurement irregularities just under One million, five hundred thousand Ghana Cedis; contract irregularities, four hundred thousand; pay-roll irregularities, two hundred thousand. What this means is that, there is something fundamentally wrong with the system when it comes to cash irregularities and this is where citizens will have to open their eyes”, he opined.