West Blue Ghana sues AG, GRA

West Blue Ghana, a limited liability company, has sued the Attorney-General (AG) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) at the Commercial Division of the High Court, Accra, for unilaterally terminating the National Single Window and Integrated Risk Man­agement System (NSW) contract totaling more than GH¢289million.

The company said it entered into a contract with the govern­ment of Ghana on August 4, 2015 to provide technical services to ensure efficient clearing of cargoes through the sea and airports.

However, in the course of delivering the services under the NSW, the GRA and the Ministry of Finance terminated the contract.

West Blues said they initiated the instant action against the defen­dants after attempts to recover out­standing debts through its counsel proved futile.

West Blue is claiming from the defendants the recovery of GH¢149,357,692.71, the outstanding fees payable to the plaintiff (West Blue) for services rendered to the Ministry of Finance and the GRA under the contract dated August 4, 2015 for the provi­sion of the National NSW contract from September 2015 to September 2017, at an applicable rate of 0.35 per cent of the final invoice value of import consignments entering into Ghana through the seaports, airports and land borders.

The company wanted to recover GH¢76,097,917.58, being the out­standing fees payable to the plain­tiff for services rendered to the Ministry of Finance and the GRA under the NSW contract from October 2017 to December 31, 2018, at an applicable rate of 0.28 per cent of the final invoice value of import consignments entering into Ghana through the seaports, airports and land borders.

West Blue are seeking to recover GH¢64,092,215.07, being the outstanding fees payable to the plaintiff for services rendered to the Ministry of Finance and the GRA from January 1, 2019 to May 2020 at an applicable rate of 0.28 per cent of the final invoice value of import consignments entering into Ghana through the seaports, airports and land borders.

West Blue is also claiming the recovery of the equipment it procured to perform its obligations under the NSW contract and the additional services it rendered from January 1, 2019 to May 2020 at the request of the Ministry of Finance and the GRA, which the defendants have retained or in alternative, re­covery of US$425,000.00, being the value of the equipment it procured to perform its obligations under the NSW contract and the additional services it rendered from January 1, 2019 to May 2020, which the defendants have retained.

In its statement of claim, West Blue stated that it entered into a contract with the Government of Ghana, acting through the Ministry of Finance and the GRA on August 4, 2015 for the provision of NSW contract.

It said the that the NSW con­tract was executed by the parties in furtherance of the government’s policy of adopting a National Elec­tronic Single Window as a means to, among others, increase efficiency through time and cost savings for traders in their dealing with govern­ment authorities for complying with the commercial, financial, regulato­ry, transport, and logistics require­ments for moving cargoes across national or economic borders.

The plaintiff stated that per the terms of the NSW contract, it was required to provide certain technical services and support activities to the GRA and related agencies in support of the government pro­gramme.

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