Physician, author and politician, Dr Arthur Kobina Kennedy says individuals responsible for the numerous breaches associated with the contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) must be held accountable.

According to him, such matters cannot be ignored without consequences.

"The SML situation is terrible. A lot of laws were breached in sole sourcing without approval from the Public Procurement Authority, and Parliament didn’t play the role it was supposed to play.

"I think that all those contracts which were awarded contrary to our laws, people cannot benefit from breaking the law, so we need to pull those things back," he said on JoyNews' AM Show.
The former NPP presidential aspirant was commenting on the full KPMG audio report on the agreement between the GRA and the SML released by the President on Wednesday, May 22.

The report mentioned among other things that the GRA entered into six service agreements with SML without gaining approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) contrary to the Public Procurement Act.

It also said there was no evidence of parliamentary approval for the award of a multi-year contract and no evidence that contracts in 2018 and 2019 were submitted to the GRA board for consideration and approval.

Touching on this, Dr Arthur Kennedy said the situation cannot be business as usual despite the crimes committed.

He argues that the country's constitutional structures are also only recognised on paper, especially by people in authority.

"We need to go back and collect their taxes and we need to find out those who were sleeping behind the wheel or looked the other way and why all these things happened when they should have been doing their job.

"I think basically it lays bare the fact that we honour our constitutional structures when in breach even though these things are there on paper. So when powerful people decide that they want to do something, they ignore them and that is a classic example of what we are witnessing," he stressed.

The NPP stalwart also used the platform to commend investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni for the work he did.

"…it sounds like he does more anti-corruption work than our anti-corruption agencies combined, which is interesting," he added.

SML/GRA deal has many candidates for jail – Manasseh Azure

Manasseh Azure Awuni has asserted that the contract is riddled with numerous violations that could lead to prosecution. He believes that those responsible for the wrongdoing could be jailed since it would be possible for any government to take legal action and recover the funds.

Speaking on JoyNews' Newsfile programme on Saturday, May 25, Mr Azure emphasised that substantial amount of state fund has been inappropriately paid to individuals who did not deserve it.

He called for accountability and urged the government to take decisive action against those involved in the contract.

"This is a case that has a number of candidates for jail if any government wants to take this up, it is going to be very easy to put people in jail, and it is going to be very easy for us to retrieve hundreds if not billions of cedis paid to people who did not deserve a pesewa," he stated.