Manasseh’s 3 questions to Akufo-Addo after appointing KPMG to audit SML-GRA contract

President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s call for an audit into the contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) leaves more to be desired, founding Editor-in-Chief of the Fourth Estate, Manasseh Azure Awuni, has observed.

He has asked three questions regarding the directive, saying the President’s current action goes contrary to that of the Contracts for Sale which is seeing the culprits on trial after the ultimate dismissal of the then Chief Executive of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Adjenim Boateng Adjei.

According to Manasseh, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) were tasked to probe the matter which yielded results, and rather than calling for an audit, the President should have sought for an investigation, making him demand a response to some questions.

“KPMG is a company that has a reputation to protect even though this company has had its own share of issues or scandals in South Africa and perhaps, elsewhere. But one would want to give them the benefit of the doubt that when they go in there, they would do a good job. My confusion is why this action is different from what the President ordered from the PPA case,” he told Alfred Ocansey Tuesday, January 02, 2024, on TV3’s Ghana T onight.

“So the question is, why is the President asking for an audit instead of investigation this time? Why KPMG and not the OSP which is already working on this and why not the CHRAJ as in the past? So these are questions that came to mind when I saw the statement and I’m wondering what the end game is yet to be,” Manasseh indicated, adding that “a number of people on social media and WhatsApp platforms are saying this is perhaps an attempt to whitewash the report and perhaps clear the people. But it is too early and the issues are already known.”

Background

A year-long investigation by Evans Aziamor-Mensah, Adwoa Adobea-Owusu and Manasseh Azure Awuni of The Fourth Estate, revealed that the company (SML), with the help of a section of Ghana’s media, had made false and unsubstantiated claims of its operations that have served as the basis for the payment it received.

The Fourth Estate asserted that, it appears the Ministry of Finance and the GRA were aware the claims were false, for some officials of the GRA said they had confronted the company about its claims of savings and volumes on two separate occasions.

The investigation also uncovered that at a time players in the downstream petroleum sector were questioning the relevance of SML’s involvement, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, initiated a more outrageous deal that would entitle the company to over $100 million every year for the next 10 years.

This, is what caused President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to order an audit into the contract.

“Accordingly, KPMG, an Audit, Tax and Advisory Services firm, has been appointed to conduct an audit into the transaction, which was entered into to enhance revenue assurance in the downstream petroleum sector, the upstream petroleum production and minerals and metals resources value chain,” a press release dated Tuesday, January 02, 2024 and signed by the Director of Communication at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, stated.

It added that the Terms of Reference of the audit are as follows: “i. conduct an audit to ascertain the rationale or needs assessment performed prior to the contract approval by GRA, and assess how the arrangement aligns with specific needs; ii. assess the appropriateness of the contracting methodology, verifying compliance with legal standards and industry best practices in the procurement process for the selection of SML;