Management of Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) have donated two canon photocopy machines to the Economic and Organised Crime Office to help boost its day-to-day activities.
According to BOST, the gesture is to say thank you to EOCO for some successes in terms of recoveries of levies and taxes that were due them.
Speaking at the brief ceremony in Accra on Wednesday, the Managing Director of BOST, Edwin Provencal said "We have been working with EOCO for a while and they have been our development partner. The only reason we supported EOCO is because we have chalked some successes in terms of recoveries of levies and taxes that were due BOST, that is the BOST margin, so when we escalated our issues to them, within, they were able to collect 5% of those monies and that was quiet substantial"
He added that when the request for the photocopy machine came from EOCO, he made a good case of which two machines were purchased instead of one.
"So when their request came, all I had to do was to escalate to my board and get the approval and I made a good case and instead of buying one photocopy machine, the board approved to buy two and not only that but plus some UPS, tonnes and other suppliers as well.
We think that the work they do is very important to the State and we all know that state at which our State coffers is. Support like this to State-Owned Institutions like this helps contribute to the succcess becomes a no-brainer"
Mr. Provencal entreated other organisations who also benefit from the works of EOCO, to also support them with some critical infrastructure and technical tools.
Speaking on the 70 Million being owned BOST by some organisations, he said "It is a very huge worry to BOST and we are in court with quite a lot of people and we have to recover monies. The way the collection is done is that we all pay taxes on fuel and it does not come to us directly, the OMCs are the ones who collect the monies on behalf of us and unfortunately when some of them collect, they don't pay back; we rare in court with quite a number of them and EOCO is also chasing a lot of them"
"It is a big worry but these things take time and we are happy about the progress EOCO has made so far. There are some, we have won judgement against so EOCO is working with us to retrieve the monies and you can be rest assured that your monies will not be left in the pockets of other people. It will be used for its intended purpose"
On her part, the Executive Director of EOCO, COP Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah said "When you collect something on behalf of the State and you don't pay that money, that is stealing and that is a criminal offence"
She added that while EOCO is looking at collections and recoveries, it is also looking at prosecuting others.
"When you evade tax, whatever you used the monies for, that is the proceeds of crime, we will come after your properties and these are things that we are working together with BOST"
The Executive Director sent strong signals to others saying they cannot commit crimes and get away with them.
"Once we do these, the revenue challenges Government has will be brought to the barest minimum"
She assured that EOCO will take good care of the photocopy machines and use them for its intended purposes.
Below are some pictures:
Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith
Comments