The Fourth Estate petitions RTI C’ssion over KPMG’s refusal to provide information on contracts with govt

The Fourth Estate has petitioned the Right to Information Commission (RTI) over audit firm, KPMG’s refusal to provide information on its contracts with the government.

The Fourth Estate filed an RTI request on January 5, 2024, asking KPMG to provide copies of all the contracts it has signed with the Government of Ghana in the last 10 years.

After 14 days of filing the request, the audit firm refused to grant the request.

Subsequently, The Fourth Estate filed an appeal to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KPMG Ghana on January 26, 2024, in line with section 31 of RTI Act 989 which states: “Except as otherwise provided in this Act, a person aggrieved by a decision of the information officer of a public institution may submit an application for internal review of that decision to the head of the public institution.”

But more than 15 days after that appeal, the CEO has also not responded to the appeal.

Section 35 of the RTI Act says: “Where the head of the public institution fails to give a decision on a request for internal review within 15 days, the head of that public institution is deemed to have affirmed the original decision of the information officer.”

The Fourth Estate has, therefore, petitioned the RTI Commission to compel the firm to release the information.

On January 3, President Nana Akufo-Addo appointed KPMG to audit a contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Company Limited.

The RTI request to KPMG followed concerns raised by some Civil Society Organisations such as IMANI Africa, the Africa Centre for Energy Policy and Occupy Ghana that there could be a possible conflict of interest situation involving KPMG because the audit firm has existing contracts with the GRA.