GHS3 Billion lie: OSP goes after SML

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has carried out a search at the offices of Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) as part of its ongoing investigation into procurement irregularities and questionable contracts awarded to the company.

Backed by the National Security Secretariat, the OSP conducted a search at SML’s offices in Osu and Tema, both located in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.

According to a report by investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni—one of three journalists who uncovered significant irregularities in the sole-sourced revenue assurance contracts awarded to SML—the OSP’s investigation has reached an advanced stage.

The special prosecutor is reportedly in need of retrieving electronic information from the company’s servers, which are believed to hold critical information relevant to the ongoing investigation.

The OSP initiated investigations into the SML contract in January 2024 following a petition from Manasseh Azure Awuni, Adwoa Adobea-Owusu, and Evans Aziamor—the journalists who carried out The Fourth Estate’s exposé on the shady contracts awarded to SML by the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

SML was established in 2017, just a month after the then NPP government assumed office. The company, which has its roots in the timber industry, was awarded revenue assurance contracts from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Finance. It had no prior experience in the downstream petroleum sector. As a result, the Public Procurement Authority rejected the GRA’s request to award the contracts to SML.

The GRA, however, went ahead to award the company revenue assurance contracts in the downstream petroleum sector in 2019.

Subsequently, the company claimed to have saved the country GHS 3 billion in potential revenue losses. But The Fourth Estate’s investigative report in December 2023 revealed that the company had no evidence to back its claim in addition to breaching procurement regulations and conflict of interest. When the GRA signed the agreement with SML Ghana, Mr. Sottie was serving as the technical advisor to the Commissioner-General of the GRA.

Later that same year, Mr. Sottie left his position at the GRA and, by 2020, took up a managerial role at SML Ghana—just as the company began implementing its contract with the GRA.

Since its inception, the GRA has remained SML Ghana’s sole client.

Interestingly, key state regulatory agencies overseeing the petroleum and mining sectors have denied any knowledge of the contract. The agreement was signed under the directive of the former Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, who is now wanted by the OSP for several charges, including the SML contract.

The Fourth Estate’s exposé further revealed that SML had secured an expanded contract valued at nearly USD 100 million per year to monitor revenue in Ghana’s upstream petroleum and gold mining sectors.

In the aftermath of the exposé, the then-President Nana Akufo-Addo suspended the contract and commissioned an independent audit by KPMG. The audit confirmed key aspects of The Fourth Estate’s report. Among the immediate outcomes was the GRA’s decision to cancel the USD 450 million external price verification and transaction audit component of the contract, which was scheduled to run for five years. Additionally, the USD 100 million annual audit arrangement for the upstream petroleum sector was suspended indefinitely.

The scandal also triggered legal action. Five civil society organizations filed a lawsuit seeking the recovery of USD 141 million already paid to SML under the contract.