Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has called on President John Dramani Mahama to terminate the controversial contract between Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), and to ensure that over $141 million paid for services is retrieved and those involved are prosecuted.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Manasseh reminded President Mahama of a promise he made while engaging professional bodies on January 31, 2024, during his two-day tour of the Eastern Region. Mahama had stated emphatically that, regardless of the audit by KPMG, he would not recognize the SML contract if elected into office.
“Whatever audit they do, I say we won’t accept or respect any agreement with SML. And for the money that they have taken already, we will hold them to account for that money,” Mahama declared in Koforidua.
Manasseh’s renewed call comes in the wake of a statement by the GRA, refuting earlier claims by SML that it had expanded its revenue mobilization services to include Ghana’s upstream petroleum and solid minerals sectors.
The GRA clarified that it had not instructed SML to activate or resume operations under the 2023 Consolidation of Revenue Assurance Services Contract, which covers those sectors.
According to Manasseh, despite SML’s failure to substantiate its claims, the downstream contract remains active. He further accused the company of deleting information from its website in an attempt to cover up its lack of delivery.
“The SML downstream contract is still running, even though when I confronted them with their claims, SML could not substantiate them. They resorted to deleting the services they claimed to be delivering from their website and denying their own claims of savings made because of their so-called service,”
“It’s been too long. Terminate the contract, retrieve the over $141 million paid to them, and prosecute those involved.” he said
On May 22, 2024, then-President Akufo-Addo released the full KPMG audit report on six contracts between SML and the GRA. These contracts were entered into and executed without approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).
The six contracts are: Transaction Audit Services (effective from June 1, 2018), Contract Extension (effective from January 1, 2019), External Price Verification Services (effective from April 1, 2019), Consolidation Services Agreement (Transaction Audit & External Verification Services) (effective from October 3, 2019), Measurement Audit of Downstream Petroleum Products (effective from October 3, 2019), and Addendum to Measurement for Downstream Petroleum Products Agreement (effective from July 29, 2020).