Court remands accountant for unauthorized attempt to collect tax for GRA

An Accra Circuit Court has remanded Michael Sumnaya Adedina, an Accountant with Medeena Consult Limited, into Police custody for an unauthorized attempt to collect tax contrary to Section 75 of the Revenue Administration Act 2016 (Act 915).

The accused was also charged with forgery of official document contrary to section 158 of the Criminal Offences Act 1960 (Act 29), stealing contrary to Section 124(1) of the Criminal Offences Act 1960 (Act 29), and fraudulent breach of trust contrary to section 128 of the Criminal Offences Act 1960 (Act 29).

Other charges are for making false or misleading statements contrary to section 74 of the Revenue Administration Act 2016 (Act 915).

The accused pleaded not guilty to all the charges and had been remanded to reappear on January 17, 2024.

Initially, lawyers for the accused person prayed for bail, but it was declined.

The Court presided over by Mrs Afua Owusua Appiah struck out two of the counts because they did not support the charges.

DSP Evans Kesse told the Court that the complainant in the case is the Country Manager for BMG Infrastructure Company Limited located at Tarkwa in the Western Region.

The prosecution said the company was a foreign-owned company registered with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) established in the aforesaid area in 2021 and it is into mining Waste processing. 

It said the accused person approached the complainant and introduced himself as a professional accountant, who could prepare all their accounts and represent their interests professionally. 

Consequently, the company outsourced the services to the accused person in all matters relating to accounting, including statutory payments and the preparation of various tax types with the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust for its employees.

The prosecution said since his appointment in 2021, the accused person prepared and collected monies from the Company at the end of every month ostensibly to pay for the various tax handles.

After each payment, the accused person furnished official receipts to the complainant from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) as proof of payment. 

It said on May 31, 2023, the GRA conducted a tax audit into the activities of BMG Infrastructure Limited and detected a tax liability of GH¢2,495,778.00 against the company, which raised suspicion.

The prosecution said consequently, the Company launched investigations to find out the cause of that huge liability. 

It said during investigations they gathered that the accused person had over the period failed to pay all the monies he collected from BMG as taxes to GRA. 

A report was made to the GRA through GIPC with the corresponding receipts for verification and it was realised that the accused person had been forging the GRA official receipts.

It said following this worrying development, an official complaint was made on December 29, 2023, to the investigation wing of GRA, and the accused person was arrested for investigations. 

During interrogation and in his caution to the Police, the accused admitted the offence and said, he downloaded the GRA payment receipts from PDF to Word and edited them to insert the tax figures and presented the forged receipts to the complainant as though genuine taxes had been paid. 

He disclosed that he used part of the money to buy concessions for mining purposes. 

He also said he used part of the money to buy a Toyota Hilux pickup at the cost of GH¢650, 000.00 and a Lexus SUV vehicle at the cost of GH¢550, 000.00.

He further stated that he used some of the proceeds to put up a four-bedroom self-contained house at Tarkwa Aboso. 

Further investigation is ongoing to identify these assets for action.