The National Communications Authority (NCA) has clarified that it does not have the authority to approve or reject the controversial $98 million revenue monitoring and SIM Box fraud-fighting deal between the Government of Ghana and Haitian company KelniGVG.
The NCA’s statement follows claims by IMANI Africa President, Franklin Cudjoe that members of the NCA board will resign if the controversial deal goes through .
However, in a statement, the NCA denied the allegation saying “, the Board of Directors of the NCA does not have the authority to approve or reject such a contract”
Below is the full statement:
For Immediate Release
Accra, 22nd May, 2018 – The attention of the National Communications Authority (NCA) has been drawn to some comments from the media mentioning the Board of Directors over issues relating to the Common
Platform and wishes to comment as follows:
The general public and interested parties are referred to the Communications Service Tax (Amendment) Act, 2013, Act 864 which states that the Minister for Finance in collaboration with the Minister responsible for Communications shall establish a common platform as a monitoring mechanism to verify the actual revenues that accrue to service providers for the purpose of computing taxes due to Government under Act 864 and revenues accruing from levies under the Electronic Communications Act 2008 (Act 775) as amended.
Pursuant to the law, the Common Platform contract was executed by the two (2) ministries. Therefore, the Board of Directors of the NCA does not have the authority to approve or reject such a contract.
It should be noted, however, that the NCA and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) per the respective enabling enactments, i.e. Act 775 as amended
2. We wish to state that Mrs. Susan Adjorkor Kumapley, a former member of the Board, resigned on 12th February, 2018. No reasons were assigned in her resignation letter.
3. The claim that some members of the Board have threatened to resign is false and should be disregarded.
The Board wishes to make the point that solutions offered by the Common Platform bring additional visibility to the communications environment and would provide benefits such as:
a. Real time monitoring of all traffic and revenue generated from mobile and fixed network operators.
b. Real time information on the volumes and values of transaction of Mobile Money.
c. Fraud Management (SIM BOX Tracking and Geo-location).
Issued by the Board of Directors,
National Communications Authority,
No. 6 Airport City, Accra.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com
