Retrieve monies paid SML, prosecute persons involved – NDC to govt

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government to take immediate steps to retrieve all monies paid to the petroleum revenue assurance firm, Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML).

President Akufo-Addo ordered KPMG to audit the contract between the two entities on January 2, 2024.

Following the submission of the audit report, a press statement from the Presidency on April 24 revealed that total fees paid under the contracts from 2018 to the date of suspension amount to over one billion Ghana cedis, a claim SML denied.

Speaking at the Moment of Truth series in Accra on Monday, April 29, Sammy Gyamfi, National Communication Officer of the NDC, demanded the immediate publication of the full KPMG investigative report on the SML matter.

The NDC’s demands are hinged on suspicions that there is no more to the report than what has been put out by the Presidency.

The party contends that the government’s decision to allow SML to continue with its activities under contracts which did not receive initial approval from the Public Procurement Authority, the GRA board, and Parliament in line with the Public Financial Management Act is a confirmation that the government is trying to cover up this “damning and sleazy SML scheme”.

The investigations by KPMG revealed that the agreements between the government and SML relative to transaction audit, external price verification, and downstream petroleum audit contracts did not receive various mandatory approvals.

This, the NDC argues, makes payments to SML totaling GH¢1,061,054,778 unlawful and illegal.

The NDC decried what it calls “a well-established practice of rampant corruption, sordid coverups and the culture of impunity,” since the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government assumed the reins of government seven years ago.

The party is demanding from the government “the immediate termination of ALL the illegal contracts entered into between SML and the GRA, the retrieval of all payments made by government to SML under the illegal agreements which have occasioned a huge financial loss to the State. The immediate publication of the full KPMG investigative report on the dealings between SML and the GRA and; the prosecution of all persons involved in the award of illegal contracts and the illegal payments thereof, to SML.”

The NDC vowed to pursue criminal prosecutions against all persons involved in the SML scandal when it assumes office in January 2025. The party promised to hold certain people accountable for breaches of the laws of Ghana, including the Public Procurement Act.

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