Accra – In Accra, the High Court has overturned a report by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) that implicated two former Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Commissioners in the Labianca case.
According to Ghana News Agency, Justice William Boampong at the General Jurisdiction (High Court Division), the OSP’s report had accused Colonel Kwadwo Damoah, a former Commissioner of GRA (Customs Division), and Joseph Adu-Kyei, a former Deputy Commissioner of GRA (Customs Division), of granting favorable tax treatment to Labianca Company, a frozen food firm owned by Jacqueline Buah Asomah Hinneh, a Council of State Member.
The report, which led to legal action last year by the two Commissioners, contended that it damaged their reputations and lacked merit. In its judgment, the court awarded a cost of GHC 10,000 against the OSP. It held that the OSP had exceeded its mandate in making its adverse findings against the Commissioners.
The court observed that the OSP acted ultra vires, or beyond its powers, by making adverse findings and publishing the report, subjecting the Commissioners to a trial by public opinion. Consequently, it quashed certain aspects of the OSP’s report relating to the Commissioners and issued an order restraining the OSP from further investigating them in this matter.
Mr. Bob Sanyalah, the lawyer representing the Commissioners, expressed his satisfaction with the High Court’s decision. The Commissioners had sought the court’s intervention to dismiss the OSP’s investigative report concerning the activities of Labianca Company.
Col. Damoah had argued that the OSP’s report was personally targeted at him, intending to ‘bring him down’. In the case of Adu-Kyei, the report had accused him of issuing unlawful customs advance rulings that led to reduced intended imports for Labianca by five to 10 percent.
The two Commissioners had contested the OSP’s report, disagreeing with its findings and subsequently taking the matter to court.