As 3 Bishops, Former GBA Boss Face Investigation
Fourteen years ago, a popular Ghanaian business magnate, Edward Osei Boakye AKA“Boakye Matress” died leaving behind giant Will containing a slew of enviable estates, 21 children and a widow.
But 14 years on, a salient part of the will, which required the establishment of a Trust Fund to be headed by 3 Bishops and lawyers has led to properties handed over to widows by their late husband being annexed by the Trust with some of his children completely cut off from their father’s properties and subjected to the payment of exorbitant rent for occupying their own fathers properties.
Enters Yaw Boagye: one of the Children of the late Edward Osei Boakye, himself, an entrepreneur was faced with hostility by the controversial Trust following his attempt to renovate plot 6. 7, 8 and 16 gifted him which was barely completed at the time of his father’s death.
Yaw Boakye’s effort to fight for the prime Airport located property saw him colliding with powerful fraternity of religious personalities, state actors and legal professionals until he coughed out a whooping $2.5 million dollars in rent to the Trust which insisted on taking even the 20% Tax withheld for the state.
Download: Request for Documentation on Edward Osei Boakye Trust Fund
After been forced by the Supreme Court and the Ghana Revenue authority in a dramatic battle to part with a whooping $450,000 dollars withheld tax to the Trust under a fake exemptions claim, Yaw Boakye has vowed to ensure runners of the Trust account for every penny of his father spent in the name of charity.
The widow, Vivian was not spared the witchery of the handlers of the estates, as residential property located at Cantonment also got ceased by the Trust awfully.
After fourteen years of its establishment, albeit controversially, the Edward Boakye Trust Fund has come under open scrutiny following fears it may have become a milking cow for its founders, including some powerful men of God.
Whatsup News’ Investigations has uncovered violations and possible connivance that has turned the estates of the late Edward Yaw Boakye into a potential conduit for ‘corruption’.
Directors of Edward Boakye Trust Fund include, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church -The Rt. Rev. Dr. Paul Kwabena Boafo, PHD (who took over from Rev. Emmanuel Asante), Joseph Osei-Bonsu-the Roman Catholic Bishop of Konongo-Mampong, Most Rev’d Prof. Daniel Yinka Sarfo-renowned Archbishop of the Anglican Church, (also doubles as gov’ts appointee on Ghana’s Judicial Council), Mr. Frank Beecham is the Chairman of the Board of Coronation Insurance Ghana, a lawyer by profession and a past National President of the Ghana Bar Association and partner at Bram-Larbi, Beechem & Co, and three others
Incidentally, three of the bishops were also named executors of the late Edward Boakye’s purported last will.
Download: Last Will and Testament E O Boakye
The alleged last wishes of the late business magnet had named seven persons including three of his children, to serve as directors of the trust fund which has objectives to run the “Yaw Boakye Technical School” at Duwaakro, grant scholarships to any deserving individuals who wish to further studies up to University level, undertake other charitable ventures for the benefits of the handicapped in society and to manage the assets of the late Edward Boakye.
According to Whatsup News investigations, while most of the properties listed in the ‘Will’ have been run down under the watch of the Trustees, the Trustees which are benefiting immensely from the booties of the Edward Boakye Estates, have resorted to tangoes with some members of the bereaved family, including ceasing assets that the late business man gave out to his children and wives before passing on.
Even worse, the Edward Boakye Trust Fund has been coveted into a dodgy Trust which arrangements have become a concern to some members of the family of the late ‘Boakye Mattress’.
A search by this newspaper at the offices of the Registrar General revealed reprehensible activities by its promoters, including tax evasion, falsification of documents and dangerous perfidy. Indeed, the last time the ‘Trust’ filed an annual return was December 2019, meaning there is no record of the Trusts transactions at the registry for the years 2020 and 2021 contrary to the requirement of the companies Act, which governs establishment of such organisations.
The findings also showed that the ‘Trust’ which was squating on a recorded total fixed asset of Ghc19,474,803 Ghana Cedis has been flagged with a whooping Ghc14,192,462 of liabilities as of the last filing with the state register.
The investigators noted that some of the people named in the will as directors of Edward Boakye Trust Fund were missing from the registration documents of the Trust and replaced by strange Characters.
Download: EDWARD OSEI BOAKYE TRUST FUND Re-Registration Profile
In the last filings also, the form 2B, being; the credentials of the organization’s Directors, was varied to exclude Kojo Edward Boakye (a son of the late Edward Boakye) who was explicitly mentioned in the will.
According to the ‘Form 2B’ deposited in the records of the registry, the Trust’s objective is “To receive and manage properties and shares belonging to the late Edward Osei Boakye in accordance with his Will probate whereof was granted on 20th November 2006 by High Court, Accra, to carry out the charitable activities stipulated under the said Will or activity analogous to those specified in the will”
As has turned out, in 2019 alone, the Trust received over Gh1.78million cedis as income and spent more than GhC1.6million same year but only GhC134,586 on any charitable activity.
The records show that while the Trust had spent a paltry of its income on principal and core objectives, a staggering quantum was suspiciously splashed on salaries and allowances of the Trustees, staff and administration of the Trust.
Yet, the Trust, which had hardly spent on charitable activities that it was purported to have been set up for, covetously connived with Tax officers to hide and engage in tax dodging activities aimed at plundering the estate of the late Boakye Mattress and in effect short-changing the public purse.
It has emerged that, rather than use the section 56 of the Income Tax Act 2015 which provided for charges related to ‘Trusts’, the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, who has been cited in the Edward Boakye Trust cartel chose to use the section 97 which relates to exemptions granted charitable organizations.
The Commissioner general disregarded due diligence required and hurriedly granted the questionable trust tax exemption, using the wrong law as a justification.
Interestingly, it has emerged that at the time that the GRA had responded, the Trust Fund was not actually registered as a non profit organization (NPO).
Indeed, checks at the Non-Profit Organization Secretariat (NPO) revealed that even though the Edward Osei Boakye Trust Fund had been in existence for decades, it was only given an NPO license on July 28, 2022. In other words, the Trust Fund had been operating illegally for decades as an NGO.
It would also appear that the Trust Fund had only scurried to update its status after the Lawyers of Mr. Boakye had written to the GRA for clarification, something that would be in bad faith even as it would connote criminal motive.
The development has led to question marks as to how the GRA could miss the fact that the time that it wrote back claiming that the Trust Fund was not under obligation to pay the withholding tax on a $2.5 million dollars (being the latest rent payment to the Trust), because it was supposedly an NGO, it was really not registered as an NGO.
At a time that Ghana is seriously in need of money, the GRA headed by Rev. Ammishaddai Owusu Amoah appears to be sleeping on the job and allowing tax evading rascal entities to dribble around it with ease.
GRA Makes U-Turn
The GRA’s position on the taxability of the income of the Trust Fund in regards to commercial ventures such as rent, has changed from the earlier emphatic statement from the Commissioner-General that the Trust Fund is a charitable organization under Section 97 of the Income Tax Act 2015 (Act 896), and therefore is not obliged to pay tax.
In a letter dated July 5, 2022, Commissioner Julie Essiam, told lawyers of Yaw Boakye that, “ The Commissioner-General has carefully reviewed your letter and would like to provide appropriate response after all facts in connection with the Trust and necessary checks from other institutions on the status of the Trust have been considered. The Commissioner-General would in due course get back to you on the matter as requested.”