The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has accused former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta of approving payments to Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) without any technical or operational justification.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday (October 30), the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, stated that Mr. Ofori-Atta approved and endorsed payments to SML from the Consolidated Fund, the Petroleum Revenue Account, and the Tax-Free Fund Account, without any technical or operational basis.

“Had he not been personally benefiting from SML’s unlawfully procured contracts, the open display of lack of capacity and expertise by SML would have triggered his intervention to halt the payments," he explained.

"Instead, he looked on conspiratorially in silence while endorsing and approving payments to SML from the consolidated fund, petroleum revenue account and tax free fund account with no technical operational basis."

Mr Agyebeng said Mr. Ofori-Atta’s personal involvement in promoting SML’s interests within the Ministry of Finance and other state institutions raises serious concerns about conflict of interest and abuse of office.

According to Mr. Agyebeng, investigations revealed that by July 2019, Mr. Ofori-Atta had become the “chief promoter, sponsor and patron” of SML and had used his office to secure public contracts for the company despite its lack of capacity to deliver on its mandates.

“Having estimated that SML had been cleaned up enough to gain acceptance by July 2019, the chief public official promoter, sponsor and patron of SML, Mr. Ofori-Atta, commenced direct involvement in the company’s activities and interface with public institutions to secure more public contracts,” the Special Prosecutor stated.

He detailed that on July 16, 2019, the Technical Adviser for ICT at the Ministry of Finance, acting on the Minister’s instructions, invited the leadership of West Blue Consulting to a meeting with Mr. Ofori-Atta to discuss collaboration with SML. The meeting, he added, was held the next day, July 17, 2019, in the Minister’s office.

At that meeting, he stated that it was agreed that West Blue should reactivate its web service to SML by transmitting data covering January to June 2019, a move that deepened the integration of the two firms.

The OSP report further noted that Mr. Ofori-Atta’s “personal promotion of SML’s cause” intensified, and on August 29, 2019, he directed his Technical Adviser, through his Chief of Staff, Ernest Akore, to lead the integration of West Blue and SML alongside the new leadership of the Customs Technical Services Bureau.

“Mr. Ofori-Atta was copied in every email chain, and this is highly significant because, as Finance Minister, he was in direct knowledge of SML’s operational and tooling capacity — which was hardly performing any service to deserve payment,” Mr. Agyebeng said.