Government has given the clearest indication yet that managers of companies found to have defrauded the state through tax evasion will be prosecuted.

It says some 290 state agencies and private companies proven by investigators to have caused financial loss of 735million Ghana cedis to the state through fraudulent deals at bonded warehouses will be severely punished in accordance with due process.

A presidential task force headed by the Chief of Staff, Prosper Bani, uncovered the fraud in which companies connived with officials of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority between 2005 and 2012 to escape payment of huge import duties at the bonded warehouses.

Some of the major culprits cited in the report are the United Steel Company Limited, Hippo Group of Companies, Eurofoods, Trusty Foods and Movelle Company Limited.  Others are B5 Plus Limited, CCTC Ghana Limited and Dry Food Company Limited.

Some state agencies such as the Electricity Company of Ghana, Tema Oil Refinery and the Ministry of Communications have also been implicated in the report.

A presidential staffer, Dr. Clement Apaak said apart from compelling the companies to cough up the money, government was also going to prosecute the offenders to serve as a deterrent.

He said Ghanaians can expect that “we will bring to book those who have connived and continue to do so to deny the state of much needed resources and we will duly prosecute and hold those who should be held accountable, accountable.”

“That is an assurance,” he told Joy FM’s Super Morning show host Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah Thursday, “I can give to you and the good people of Ghana on behalf of the president.”

Dr Apaak said the government was still in the process of holding custom officials captured on video tapes taking bribes, accountable, four years after their cover was blown by journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas.

He said although he was not in government when the rot was uncovered at the time, “I can tell you that there is serious political will and determination to ensure that we bring those members of our society who have decided to use their knowledge, skill, and talent to dupe the state and to deny the people of much needed resources to book and to account.”