Stephen Asukpa Odame Esq. of Collins Danso Law Chambers in Accra has filed a legal suit on behalf of Emmanuella Sarfowaa against the purported appointment of Mr. Anthony Kwasi Sarpong as the Acting Commisoner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority of (GRA).
The GRA and the Attorney General are the second and third defendants respectively in the suit.
The action, according to the plaintiff, Emmanuella Sarfowaa, who is suing in her capacity as a Ghanaian, is to enforce the compliance of the laws of Ghana.
The President, acting through his secretary on January 21, 2025, purportedly “appointed the first defendant pending the constitutionally required advice of the Govering Board given in consultation with the Public Sevices Commission”.
But the plaintiff contends in her statement of claims filed on on January 29, 2025 before an Accra High Court that the first defendant as at January 26, 2025 is listed on KPMG website as Senior Partner of KPMG (a foreign accounting firm practising in Ghana).
She also contends that the second defendant state revenue collector, had no Governing Council as at January 21, 2025.
The plaintiff argued that the laws of Ghana outlaw conflict of interest by a public servant in the face of the first defendant’s appointment by the President against his personal interests.
She noted that there is bound to exist or develop a conflict of interest in the first defendant as the head of the second defendant institution and his personal (direct or vicarious) interest in KPMG because of the ongoing fee-paying contractual relationship between the GRA and KPMG and/or regularity of the GRA entering into a fee-paying contractual relationship with KPMG.
The plaintiff is therefore seeking a declaration of the court that the purported appointment would inevitably place the first defendant in a conflict of interest situation and that such appointment is unlawful and a violation of the laws of Ghana.
By the action, the plaintiff is also seeking an order revoking the said appointment of the first defendant, a former employee of KPMG or a person with an interest in KPMG.
The writ also seeks a perpetual injunction order against the President restraining him or any person acting through his authority from appointing the first defendant.
The plaintiff further sought a perpetual injunction order against the Governing Council of GRA from considering an advice to the President as stipulated under Article 195 of the 1992 Constituion of Ghana in respect of the appointment of Mr. Anthony Kwasi Sarpong as the Acting Commisoner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority. E N D