The CEO of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distribution (CBOD), Senyo Hosi is warning the recent taxes announced in the 2021 budget will only worsen corruption in the country and cover government inefficiencies.

Contributing to a discussion on taxes in the 2021 Budget on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Mr Hosi noted that the new taxes are hard, if not impossible, to justify.

In his view, the country’s economic challenges are mainly to be blamed on graft.

“Corruption continues to thrive in this country and it gets bigger every year. I have deep experiences with the road sector and I can tell you for sure that Government of Ghana’s road projects are about two times the cost of donor projects.

“These are the facts and we all know it. That is why I am angry because all these things [taxes] that are going on they are only going to end up funding a lot more of this theft,” he told host Kojo Yankson.

“Some people are already stealing then you are taxing us to pay more. But the money comes in and you don’t see it effectively and efficiently used, it just goes on to facilitate more stealing. That is one of my biggest problem.”

Although a section of Ghanaians has described corruption as the biggest impediment to the country’s economic growth, little has been seen by successive governments to eradicate the menace, Mr. Hosi noted.

Taking this into account, he attributed the rise of the canker to politics and how political party activities are funded in the country.

According to him, sponsors of political parties ahead of elections, are steadily becoming the ‘owners’ of the country.

“But why do we have the stealing. And this is where we have to really look at the broader picture, it goes back to Party funding,” he said, citing illegal fuel trading as one of the key illegal sources of funding for political parties.

“This petroleum sector mafia that exists today will soon own this country because we will never have a President who is a president of his own. That President is owned by this mafia. The ministers, legislature, the judiciary [will be] owned by this same mafia,” he stated.

Mr Hosi suggested a review of Ghana’s constitutional structure as a means to minimizing corruption in the country.

“We need to change the structure of our Constitution,” he said. “We need to reduce the powers of our President because the people we have in our country are generally not good people. We should have our key economic institutions structured such that we have a minimal partisan appointment [but] more institutional representation.”