The Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Anthony Sarpong, together with other top officials, have been summoned by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) for questioning over the controversial GRA–Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) revenue assurance contract.

The other GRA officials include the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Finance, Celestine Annan; and the Technical Assistant to theCommissioner-General, Kenneth Agyei-Duah. Their invitation follows the recent arrest of the Acting Head of Legal Affairs at the GRA, Freeman Sarbah for his alleged involvement in the controversial deal as well as trying to interfere with justice.

The Strategic Mobilization Limited has been operating in Ghana for the past five years to check revenue in the oil (upstream) and mining (mineral) sectors. In 2024, the revenue arm of the government discontinued two contract transactions (the Audit and External Verification Service Contract (AEVS) with SML, as well as halting portions of the contract agreement.

The GRA also suspended the SML's Upstream Petroleum and Minerals Revenue Audit until further notice. The suspension came after the then-President, Akufo-Addo received a report from KPMG against SML's deals. Last week, President John Dramani Mahama ordered the termination of the SML deal following a comprehensive investigation conducted by the Office of the Special Prosecutor, led by Mr Kissi Agyebeng. The President issued the termination through a letter to the Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson.

Following the investigations, the anti-corruption agency discovered procurement breaches and irregularities in contract awards, contractual overreach beyond SML’s original mandate, lack of value for money due to inflated costs and questionable service delivery, and legal concerns.

The SML contracts included several components, thus a Transaction Audit and External Price Verification service agreement, a Measurement Audit for Downstream Petroleum Products contract, and later agreements for Upstream Petroleum and Minerals & Metals audit services.

On 3 May 2024, GRA terminated two of those contracts (the Transaction Audit & External Price Verification) and suspended the Upstream Petroleum & Minerals Audit portion under the erstwhile government.

In June this year, following the OSP’s findings, the Measurement Audit for Downstream Petroleum Products (the main SML contract) was completely terminated, saving Ghana over GHS 1.2 billion.

In an addendum shared on its X (formerly Twitter) handle, the OSP noted that more has been saved in finances aside from the GHC 1.2billion. The OSP announced that Ghana has saved more than GHS 2.6 billion and US$173 million.

The additional savings, it said, arose from avoiding payments tied to crude oil and gold export monitoring services that were never implemented.

“Following the earlier announcement that Ghana saved over GHS 1.2 billion from the cancellation of the main SML revenue assurance contract, there an additional savings from the upstream and mineral sector components of the agreement. These contracts, which were based on a variable fee structure linked to exports of crude oil and gold, would have cost the State approximately US$173 million for crude oil and GHS 2.6 billion for gold exports over five years.

SML did not commence work as the arrangement coincided with the KPMG audit. Owing to the criminal investigations by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the subsequent cancellation by the President, Ghana has now avoided these further costs,” the OSP noted in its statement.

In a highly detailed press briefing following a comprehensive investigation, the OSP mentioned critical findings that exposed systemic breaches of public financial regulations and a clear misuse of authority that caused the state to lose money.

"There was no genuine need for contracting SML for the obligations it's purported to perform," the Special Prosecutor declared.

Mr Agyebeng has solidified the 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,” the OSP said during a press conference on Thursday, October 30.

The OSP’s findings expose 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 former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has been declared wanted by the OSP for causing financial loss to the state in several dealings, including the contractual arrangement between Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited and the Ghana Revenue Authority for the stated objective of enhancing 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 the 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 finalising 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.