The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has clarified that the presidency's statement regarding the findings from KPMG's audit of the contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) underlines The Fourth Estate’s report.

According to the Foundation, KPMG’s audit conducted in response to The Fourth Estate’s publications, uncovered numerous anomalies regarding the contracts and raised questions about the validity of public claims made by SML regarding the benefits of the contract to the nation.

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In a press statement issued by the Executive Director of MFWA, Sulemana Braimah, the Non-Governmental Organisation said that SML did not limit itself to the statement from the Presidency and its disagreements with the findings in its statement. 

It, however, said that SML derided the report by The Fourth Estate and pronounced a verdict on The Fourth Estate’s work, describing its publication as “false and misleading.”

But the MFWA said that what was contained in the President’s statement underlined the fact of the questionable nature of the GRA-SML contract revealed by The Fourth Estate.

According to them, the audit findings by KPMG, as disclosed in the President’s statement, vindicate their stance and affirm that the GRA-SML contract is indeed questionable.

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The MFWA commended both the President and Parliament for recognising the credibility of its work and taking separate actions to ensure the propriety of the contract.

However, they objected to the President’s attempt to turn a blind eye to the serious breaches of the country’s procurement laws in the award of the contracts and rather asked for the downstream petroleum contract to be renegotiated. 

“This falls short of the principles of rule of law and accountability. It is also in contrast to the President’s campaign promise in August 2016 that “the era of sole sourcing will come to an end,” MFWA said.

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They urged President Akufo-Addo to request the outright cancellation of the GRA-SML contract and to establish a Presidential Committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the breach of procurement laws in the awarding of these contracts.

“We expect the President to encourage the OSP to expedite its investigations for immediate prosecution of all those behind the contracts that were illegally awarded in 2018 and 2019 and recover all payments made during the period.

“We call on the President to make public the full report of the KPMG audit into the GRA-SML contract.”