The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has solidified its case against the contentious Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) contract, alleging that former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta approved payments without any technical or operational justification.

According to the OSP, Ofori-Atta failed to intervene even though SML openly lacked the necessary capacity, expertise, and tools to execute its contract.

Instead, he allegedly remained complicit, approving payments from the Consolidated Fund, the Petroleum Revenue Account, and the Tax Refund Account.

The  OSP's investigation concluded, "Had he not been personally benefiting from the SML's unlawfully procured contracts, the openly displayed by SML of a lack of capacity's expertise and tools would have immediately triggered his intervention to halt payments to SML and demand accountability. Instead, he looked on conspiratorially in silence, while endorsing and approving payments to SML from the consolidated fund, petroleum revenue account, and Tax Refund account with no technical or operational basis." OSP said during a press conference on Thursday, October 30.

OSP’s findings exposes SML’s clear inability to perform the revenue assurance services it was contracted for, which included key responsibilities such as transaction audits and external price verification.

According to the investigation, the continuous “troubleshooting displayed during this period was born of the unlawful imposition of SML in the space and the still lingering reality of SML’s lack of capacity to carry out transaction audits and external price verification.”

Even after 15 months of engagement, SML reportedly “had no system in place to receive ccvrs” (customs control and valuation records), the essential data needed to execute its tasks.

Additionally, the existing data provider, West Blue, was under “no legal obligation to release the vital data” to SML.

As a result, the assigned work remained uncompleted, yet the company “continued to be paid,” reinforcing the OSP’s conclusion that the situation led to a financial loss to the state.

It is important to note that the former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has been declared wanted by the OSP for causing financial loss to the state in several dealings, which include the contractual arrangement between Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited and the Ghana Revenue Authority for the stated objective of the enhancement of revenue assurance in the downstream petroleum sector, upstream petroleum production, and minerals and metals resource value chain.

The activities of SML came to light years ago after Manasseh Azure Awuni raised contractual breaches in a deal involving Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML).

The original purpose of the GRA-SML contract was to boost revenue assurance in vital sectors of Ghana’s economy, including the downstream petroleum sector, upstream petroleum production, and the minerals and metals value chain.

The goal was to streamline revenue collection, ensuring greater transparency and efficiency in these high-revenue sectors.

Following concerns, an in-depth audit was carried out by international firm KPMG, commissioned by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The audit was launched to examine the contractual agreements between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and SML, with a particular focus on the procedures and approvals related to the contract.

The KPMG audit uncovered significant procedural errors and regulatory violations in awarding the contract. Specifically, the GRA did not obtain the required approvals from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) and failed to seek parliamentary oversight before finalizing the agreement with SML

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) entered into six service agreements with Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) using the single-source procurement method without obtaining approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

The first agreement, covering Transaction Audit Services, was signed on June 1, 2018. This was followed by a Contract Extension on January 1, 2019.

On April 1, 2019, the GRA entered into another agreement with SML for External Price Verification Services. Subsequently, on October 3, 2019, the two parties signed a Consolidation Services Agreement, which combined the Transaction Audit and External Verification Services.

That same day, a separate agreement was also signed for the Measurement Audit of Downstream Petroleum Products. Later, on July 29, 2020, an Addendum to the Measurement Audit for Downstream Petroleum Products Agreement was executed.

The audit report also revealed that SML owes the government over GHC31 million in taxes.

During the period from 1 September 2020 to 30 April 2021, a bulk payment to SML covering invoices for an 8-month period did not have VAT and WHT deductions, amounting to GHE13.38 million.

This contradicts GRA's standard practice of deducting such taxes for payments to SML between 1 June 2020 and 31 August 2023.

Additionally, SML failed to fulfil its statutory obligations by neither filing returns nor remitting these taxes to GRA.

Pursuant to Section 71(1) of the RA Act, the accrued interest on the tax liability is estimated at GHC18.50 million owed by SML to GRA as of 31 January 2024. Consequently, the total liability incurred by SML amounts to GHC31.88 million.

In May 2024, Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam Nartey George, noted that the then Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta had a role to play in the controversial deal.

"The SML or SMEL deal is a clear example of what Justice Dotse described as a create, loot and share. One thing Ghanaians must bear in mind is that all of these happened with the tacit approval of the then Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta."

"As usual, he is trying to run under the radar and people are failing to realise, the key cardinal role he played in this entire arrangement," he stated while speaking on JoyNews' Newsfile programme on Saturday, May 25.

In February this year, SML dragged Azure Awuni to court, claiming that Manasseh referred to its agreement with the government as “the biggest scam” and labeled the deal as “shady” while branding the entire situation “the SML scandal.”

SML was seeking several remedies from the court, including: GHS1,000,000 in general damages for defamation, GHS20,000,000 in exemplary damages for what it describes as malicious reporting, a perpetual injunction to prevent Manasseh from making further defamatory claims about the company, public retraction and apology specifically for statements made in Chapter 28 of his book and any other reliefs the court deems appropriate.