Because of your report Mahama says he will terminate our contract if elected: SML says in suit against MFWA, Manasseh

Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) says The Fourth Estate’s investigative reports on the SML and Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) contracts has courted extreme publish backlash against the company to the extent that former President John Dramani has promised he would terminate the deal if elected president.

The company in its legal action against the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) said The Fourth Estate’s reportage had evoked among the public feelings of hatred and outrage against it, as well as a lot of reputational damage.

SML said the reportage “has also resulted in public reactions and backlash, which had further hurt, marred and damaged the reputation of the plaintiff in the eyes of Ghanaians, causing distrust and a lack of confidence in the plaintiff’s operations in the petroleum sector.”

SML claimed in court documents that although The Fourth Estate had published its rejoinders which rebutted earlier publications against it, The Fourth Estate continued to use words such as ‘shady’ and ‘questionable’ without any evidence in its subsequent publications.

The company, therefore, wants the court to slap the MFWA with GHS 10 million in damages for what it said were the sins of The Fourth Estate, the accountability journalism project of the MFWA.

The plaintiff also wants the court to grant a gagging order to restrain The Fourth Estate from publishing “any further defamatory material” about SML, as well as retraction and apology from The Fourth Estate.

This is the second time SML is suing about The Fourth Estate’s stories. The company took legal action against The Fourth Estate in February 2024 following the release of the investigative report.

The report raised questions about the circumstances surrounding the signing of the contract and its rationale as the services SML was contracted to provide were already being performed by other state agencies.

In that suit, SML was demanding the same chain of reliefs including GHS10 million damages, a retraction and apology.

However, the court last month dismissed the case because The Fourth Estate is not a registered entity but rather a project of the MFWA which could not sue nor be sued.

SML indicated to the court that it would amend its suit to replace The Fourth Estate with MFWA.

It did.

Background

After The Fourth Estate released its investigations in December last year, President Nana

Akufo-Addo in January 2024 directed audit firm, KPMG, to audit the GRA/SML deal, following The Fourth Estate’s exposé on the revenue assurance contract.

As contained in a statement released by the office of the President, the KPMG audit report revealed, among others, that despite initial disapproval from the Public Procurement Authority, the GRA went ahead to sign a contract with SML.

“On three occasions, the GRA sought approval from PPA to use the single source procurement method to engage SML to provide transaction audit services. PPA did not grant approval,” the presidency said in a statement on April 24, 2024, almost four months after The Fourth Estate’s exposé.