Martin Kpebu, a private legal practitioner is calling on Ghanaians to grant the President some time to go through the KPMG report on the contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) before making it public.
The lawyer says he supports the fact that the report should be made public, there should however, be some time as enshrined in the Audit Service Act to make room for persons cited in the report to respond.
According to the lawyer, since the report also borders on government, what is in the constitution must be applied, giving room for that time frame to ensure everyone involved in any of the findings is consulted.
Mr. Kpebu was speaking on the KeyPoints on TV3 Saturday, April 06, 2024, when he said the report has not been up to the 30 days as stipulated in the Audit Service Act.
“In an our Audit Service Act, when they bring Audit Report like they call it, management letter, when they are done with the audit and there are issues and the rest, you have 30 days to respond so I don’t think that we have basis to say when KPMG brought the report is should be less than 30.
“Because after all it is also in governance and if Auditor-General does its work and there are issues, the management letter gives the President one month to respond to that so I think the same should apply so that they have some time for people who have been cited in the report to have time to respond,” he championed.
KPMG audit on GRA-SML deal needless, EOCO or CID should have taken up the matter – Segbefia
Meanwhile, Professor Ransford Gyampo of the University of Ghana, speaking on the same show tasked the President not to study the report on the contract between the GRA and SML in perpetuity.
He says Ghanaians deserve to know the content of the report whether it is as stinky as it was painted or otherwise.
Professor Gyampo, who petitioned the President to make the document public, indicated that any attempt by any powers that be, to shield the contents of the report will not be countenanced.
According to him, making the report known to the public and acting on the content will underscore the principles of probity and accountability for the government of the day.
“I call on the President not to study the document in perpetuity because we’ll not allow that to happen. Even if new things come up to hide this, some of us we’ll bring that to the fore and ensure that it continued to dominate in public policy discourse so we call on him to do the right thing. Just ensure that the good people of Ghana are made to know the content. If there are corrupt deals or if the deal is really stinky, let us know and let us know who is culpable. Who did what, who must be punished in the interest of accountability, transparency, and governmental responsiveness.
“If the deal is not as stinky as has been made to be in the public domain, then let us also know how we have run down the image of people and what we’ll do to increase it.
We’ll not.allow the President to sit on the report,” he indicated.
