The controversy surrounding Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited’s (SML) multi-million-dollar revenue assurance contract with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has deepened, as renowned investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has accused the company of deliberately misrepresenting the facts to the public.

At the heart of the dispute is SML’s recent press conference, where the company’s legal counsel, Cephas Boyuo, publicly refuted the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s (OSP) interim findings. The OSP had reported that SML lacked the required technical capacity and had been involved in contractual irregularities—a claim SML strenuously denied on November 7 during its media briefing in Accra.

SML’s lawyer sought to assure the public that their contract with GRA was above board, performance-based, and fully compliant with procurement regulations. But on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News, Manasseh Azure Awuni pushed back strongly, urging Ghanaians to scrutinize the details.

“The comments I heard from SML’s lawyers were not surprising. Much of it was falsehoods. They have peddled these falsehoods after we caught them pants down."

Azure, whose investigative reporting in late 2023 first exposed the contract’s terms and triggered the OSP’s probe, specifically challenged SML’s assertion that payments to them were tied to performance outcomes.

“The SML lawyer is trying to tell Ghanaians that the company is paid based on performance, which is false,” he said.

He further detailed the contract’s fee structure, revealing that SML was entitled to lucrative payments regardless of demonstrated results or revenue increases for the state.

“If anybody ever gets to speak to them, let them read the payments clause, the fees from the contract. The upstream petroleum products, Ofori-Atta, instigated it, and the contract said that every barrel of petroleum product we produce, SML should be entitled to $75 per barrel.

So, at the time we were producing 150,000 barrels a day, this company will be making $120,000 daily, not tied to any performance, so what the lawyer said is false.”

Public records and GRA data indicate that at Ghana’s peak crude oil output of 150,000 barrels per day, SML’s contract could yield an annual payout exceeding $43 million—regardless of whether the company’s interventions generated measurable value for the tax authority or state coffers.

The controversy has drawn widespread attention, with civil society groups and anti-corruption campaigners calling for greater transparency and the renegotiation or cancellation of state contracts that offer guaranteed payments without clear deliverables. The OSP’s investigation remains ongoing, with its final report expected to recommend reforms in public procurement and revenue assurance contracting.

Meanwhile, SML maintains its innocence and continues to operate under the disputed contract, even as pressure mounts from the public and Parliament for a full account of the deal’s origins, execution, and impact.

Azure’s revelations, and the pushback from SML, highlight the critical role of investigative journalism in safeguarding public funds and holding both private contractors and state agencies to account.