West Blue sues government, GRA over non-payment of GH¢289 million arrears

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West Blue Ghana has sued the Attorney-General (AG) and Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for non-payment of over GH¢289million in arrears for work done under the National Single Window and Integrated Risk Management System contract executed in August 2015.

In a suit filed at an Accra High Court on Tuesday, November 14, West Blue (plaintiff) is requesting the court to order the Attorney-General (1st defendant) and Ghana Revenue Authority (2nd defendant) to make full payment of the outstanding fees due for services rendered.

According to West Blue, it decided on going to court because all attempts to recover the outstanding debts – including various correspondence through its lawyers Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa and Ankomah (BELA) and Africa Legal Associates (ALA) to the Ministry of Finance and the 2nd Defendant (GRA) – have been unsuccessful as the defendants, without any lawful basis, have remained adamant in their position that all payment obligations owed the plaintiff (West Blue) have been discharged.

The outstanding fees were occasioned as a result of government’s (finance ministry and GRA) failure to pay West Blue the full contract price (from 2015 to 2020) fee – which is a fixed percentage of the final invoice Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) value of import consignments entering into Ghana through the seaports, airports and land borders.

Under West Blue’s contract with government, acting through the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the GRA, for providing the National Single Window and Integrated Risk Management System (NSW Contract), the IT company was to be paid a contract price that is a fee equivalent to 0.35 percent (zero point three five per centum) of the final invoice CIF value of import consignments entering into Ghana through the seaports, airports and land borders.

The former deputy finance minister, Kwaku Kwarteng, in letters dated Jan 25, 2018; February 4, 2019; and March 14, 2019 alluded to West Blue’s contract price of 0.35 percent and subsequently reduced this to 0.28 percent of the final invoice CIF value of all imports.

In letters signed on behalf of the minister dated June 11 and July 17, 2020 respectively by Mangowa Ghanney, Director-Legal at the Ministry of Finance – who in 2015 drafted and oversaw execution of the government contract with West Blue – confirmed that West Blue’s payment was a fixed percentage of the final invoice CIF of all imports.

However, government since 2015 till the contract ended in 2020, failed to pay West Blue the full amount of the fixed percentage of final invoice CIF value for import consignments entering Ghana through the seaports, airports and land borders.

By: thebftonline.com