Chinese Company Bribes NDC Over $43m Tax
President John Mahama
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, spokesman for the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), Davis Opoku produced documentary evidence to prove how the Chinese company, which office is located on the 5th and 6th floors of the Adwoa Adjeiwaa building in Osu, has been funding the activities and operations of the NDC, contravening the country’s electoral laws, apparently in exchange for $43million tax exemption.
The documents, which included invoices and plane tickets for some government officials, indicated that Huawei had been printing campaign paraphernalia, T-shirts, cups, caps and key holders, worth millions of dollars, for the NDC campaign.
These include the printing of 50,000 pieces of t-shirts at $395,000, in addition to 60,000 pieces of assorted paraphernalia including key rings (holders), posters and banners worth $42,040, which were shipped into the county between May and July 2012.
All these campaign materials had the picture of the late President Mills embossed on them.
DAILY GUIDE has learnt that new campaign materials for President Mahama from China had arrived.
Section 23 (1) of the Political Parties Act, Act 574, states that “only a citizen may contribute whether in cash or in kind to the fund of a political party.”
Section 24 of the same Act states that “A non-citizen shall not directly or indirectly make a contribution or donation or loan whether in cash or in kind to the funds held by or for the benefit of a political party and no political party or person acting for or on behalf of a political party shall demand or accept a contribution donation or loan from a non-citizen.”
It also emerged that the company had allegedly been financing the foreign travels of some key and influential members of the ruling administration and their families’, chief among them being Dr. Cadman Mills, the brother and economic advisor of the late President Mills.
The National Security Coordinator, Lt Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, some ministers and senior members of the NDC administration are reported to have also benefitted from the largesse of Huawei, which flew them- all expenses paid- to China.
In return, the NDC government granted the Huawei group a tax exemption of $43 million.
The tax exemption recently generated a furore in Parliament, with some MPs kicking against it.
At that time, it was not known that the Chinese company, which has been cited for fraud in other countries, had been secretly financing the ruling party which was pushing for the tax exemption.
Huawei was also awarded what the leadership of AFAG believed could arguably go down as one of the ‘juiciest contracts’ to be doled out by the NDC administration- the E-Government platform project worth a whopping $127.5million and a shocking GH¢1 as tax for this contract.
Track Record
The company is said to be involved in several international scandals which have led to the termination of its contracts in countries such as the USA, Australia and India, for security reasons whilst the Algerian authorities were said to have banned its operations somewhere in June this year following a bribery scandal which involved the company and some executives of the state-owned telecom.
AFAG indicated its preparedness to lodge an official complaint with the police to commence investigations into the dealings of Huawei and the ruling NDC.
In view of the fact that political parties were public entities, AFAG also asked the Electoral Commission (EC) to publish the annual report of the NDC to ascertain whether these donations had ever been reported.
Until standing issues were addressed, Davis Opoku said, “AFAG will not rest”.
If found culpable, Huawei and the NDC could face hefty sanctions, in view of the provisions of the Political Parties Act 25 (1).