Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML), the company involved in a revenue assurance contract with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), has clarified that the payments it has received under the deal are performance-based.

According to SML, every payment it has received so far is directly tied to the level of performance and results achieved in the execution of its duties.

Serwaa Sarpong, who oversees Support Management at SML, emphasised during an interview on JoyNews' Newsfile program that the contract with GRA operates on a risk-reward basis.

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She explained that SML has invested fully into the contract, with no financial contribution from the government, and is compensated based on the effectiveness of its services.

Furthermore, Ms Sarpong stated that SML has not received any payments that it did not rightfully earn through its work with GRA.

She affirmed that the company is committed to ethical business practices and would not engage in any activities that could be deemed misconduct.

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SML asserts that it is a legitimate entity conducting lawful operations, and its engagement with GRA is aimed at improving revenue collection for the government without any undue financial burden on taxpayers.

"The documentary says that there is duplication of work, there is duplication of work that the NPA is already doing, but that is a lack of understanding of domain knowledge because I have proven here and I’ll give evidence that the NPA endorsed the coming into the downstream by SML and that must be noted because SML is doing a fantastic job, and we are adding benefits to the revenue generation in the downstream petroleum."

"The GRA awarded the 2023 consolidated contract to SML following due processes because SML is a legal company and practices best practices in its work."

"We are ethical and we will not do anything that amounts to misconduct. The whole contract is a risk-reward contract, thus SML bears the financial costs of the contract the government has not given SML a pesewa and everything that we have done has been paid for by SML and the payments that we have received are performance based," he said.

KPMG, a reputable auditing firm, has completed and presented its report on the contract between GRA and SML to President Akufo-Addo.

Initiated by the President on January 2, 2024, following an exposé by the Fourth Estate, the KPMG audit was originally scheduled to be concluded by Tuesday, January 16, 2024, but due to circumstances, the deadline was extended to Friday, February 23, 2024.

According to the audit findings, SML has received a total of GH¢1,061,054,778 since 2018 while fulfilling its obligations partially.

SML has challenged that finding, claiming, however, that the report in general justifies the contract.