The Member of Parliament for Obuasi West, Kwaku Kwarteng, is alleging that the Communications Ministry has \u2018criminally\u2019 engaged another company to monitor international calls leading to a massive financial loss to the state.<\/p>\n
According to him, government\u2019s decision to engage Afriwave Telecoms to do the same monitoring that Subah Info Solutions is already doing is contrary to the laws of the country.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”akaH7zswg2faz0s7B0pHVUdzT2rRq5tX”]In an interview with Citi News<\/strong>, Kwaku Kwarteng who is also a\u00a0member on Parliament\u2019s Finance Committee asked\u00a0government to withdraw the directive to network providers regarding Afriwave, since it is causing financial loss to the state.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is criminal because when government or departments of government sign a contract with one company and public finances are being used to pay that company; and you ask another company to go and do the same thing, just so you can have the opportunity to pay that second company, it is criminally causing financial loss to the state.\u201d<\/p>\n He further asked\u00a0the sector Minister \u201cor whoever is giving those directives to withdraw it, because it is criminal. I do not think the motive is to protect revenue; the motive is to give money illegitimately to the second company.\u201d<\/p>\n Kwaku Kwarteng in a letter addressed to the Minister of Communications explained that the ministry per the Communications Service Tax (Amendment) Act 2013, signed a contract with Subah Info Solutions to monitor both the communications service tax and the levies on incoming international telephone traffic.<\/p>\n He said although the contract will end in May 2016, government has through\u00a0the National Communications Authority\u00a0(NCA)\u00a0\u201cdirected network providers to allow another private company, Afriwave Telecom Ltd, access to their facilities for Afriwave to do the same monitoring that Subah Info Solutions is already doing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, both Subah and Afriwave have their devices inserted into the billing nodes of network providers, with Afriwave claiming they have also been authorized to do the same revenue monitoring,\u201d the legislator added.<\/p>\n The New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP argued that the move is a \u201cwasteful duplication\u201d and must be reversed as a matter of urgency.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n