Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) Ben Boakye says the auditing firm KPMG should have declared their conflict of interest following their appointment by the President to investigate the GRA-SML contract.

KPMG was tasked with auditing the revenue assurance contract signed between the Ghana Revenue Authority and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML-Ghana) following an investigation by The Fourth Estate which revealed that SML had been awarded contracts that entitled the company to more than $100 million every year.

The company admitted it was not performing the advertised services that claimed to tackle under-reporting, diversion and dilution when the investigative journalists confronted it with evidence.

It has since deleted those claims from its website.

According to Ben Boakye, before the President’s directive, KPMG had a working relationship with GRA, and thus the audit firm should have made that public, and proffered processes to deal with the said conflict.

Their failure to do so, he said, was rather disappointing and posed a threat to the public’s confidence in the report they will deliver to the President at the end of their work.

Speaking on the Joy Super Morning Show, he said, “I think for us we pointed out some conflict that exists and we’re hoping that KPMG would have clarified it perhaps to assure the public that despite that conflict, it has processes to deal with it and that would have been a way to acknowledge that the conflict exists.

“Because you’re a client of GRA and to that extent, it is the Commissioner General who is now in a defensive mode that pays them for the work that they do.

“So to the extent that they will get into the conflict, they should have communicated this, it’s a public interest matter and we were expecting that they could have communicated the process to be able to insulate themselves from the conflict that exists and assure us that they will do an impartial job so that all of us will monitor what they’re doing.”

He, however, said KPMG should be given the benefit of the doubt as they go on to flesh out their report.

“But we can still give them the benefit of the doubt and wait for what the outcome will be and we will have the capacity to look at the report that they’ll issue and be able to interrogate what they will put out.

“But the conflict still exists, it hasn’t been put out and it hasn’t been eliminated in any way and they have not even acknowledged it publicly that they are into that conflict and they have processes to deal with it,” he said.

Background

President Akufo-Addo on January 2, 2024, ordered an audit into the contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML).

The audit to be conducted by KPMG was slated to last for two weeks.

The President’s action followed an investigation by The Fourth Estate which revealed that SML had been awarded contracts that entitle the company to more than $100 million every year.

The company admitted it was not performing the advertised services that claimed to tackle under-reporting, diversion and dilution when the investigative journalists confronted it with evidence. It has since deleted those claims from its website.

The Managing Director of SML, Christian Tetteh Sottie, also admitted that the company’s claim that its services had saved Ghana GHS3 billion was false.

President Akufo-Addo further instructed the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Finance to adhere to his directive and furnish KPMG with all necessary documentation for the upcoming audit.

"The President has directed the Ministry of Finance and GRA to provide KPMG with whatever assistance they will require for conduct of the audit, and has also directed the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority to suspend the performance of the contract, pending the submission of the audit report, including any payments presently envisaged under its terms," the President directed in a press statement.