GRA Entered Into 6 Contracts With SML Without PPA Alignment– KPMG Report Reveals

KPMG Report Reveals GRA Entered into Six Contracts with SML without PPA Approval

A recent report by KPMG, a renowned auditing and advisory firm, has uncovered that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) entered into six service contracts with Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) without obtaining the necessary approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

This revelation contradicts the presidency’s initial claim of three contracts.

The six contracts, outlined in the KPMG report, include:

• Transaction Audit Services (effective from June 1, 2018)
• Contract Extension (effective from January 1, 2019)
• External Price Verification Services (effective from April 1, 2019)
• Consolidation Services Agreement (Transaction Audit & External Verification Services) (effective from October 3, 2019)
• Measurement Audit of Downstream Petroleum Products (effective from October 3, 2019)
• Addendum to Measurement for Downstream Petroleum Products Agreement (effective from July 29, 2020)

The report states that GRA executed these contracts with SML in breach of the Public Procurement Act, as amended.

This discovery follows an investigation by The Fourth Estate, which exposed irregularities in the contracts between SML, the Ministry of Finance, and GRA.

Despite SML’s claims of addressing revenue losses in the downstream petroleum sector, evidence revealed that other companies and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) were already performing these functions.

The Managing Director of SML, Christian Tetteh Sottie, admitted to the inaccuracies and removed the false claims from the company’s website.

The report’s findings led President Akufo-Addo to release a statement and suspend the contracts, commissioning KPMG to conduct an audit and submit a report.

The full report provides further damning revelations about SML’s operations within its contracts with the Ministry of Finance and GRA.