The Centre for Democratic Development Ghana (CDD-Ghana) is happy with the release of the KPMG report about the contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML).

This follows President Akufo-Addo’s initial refusal to grant a request by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) for the publication of the full report.

According to the Presidency, section 5 (1) (a) and (b) (i) of the RTI Act highlights that information prepared for or submitted to the President, containing opinions, advice, deliberations, recommendations, minutes, or consultations, is exempted from disclosure. 

It said this exemption is to protect the integrity of the deliberative process and ensure the confidentiality of discussions and considerations at the highest levels of government.

The presidency further elaborated that the complete KPMG Audit Report includes opinions, advice, deliberations, and recommendations that are integral to the President’s decision-making process, hence, it qualifies for exemption under the RTI Act.

However, the President released the full report on Wednesday, May 22, citing his desire for transparency and openness.

Touching on this, the Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at CDD-Ghana, Dr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante stated that the release of the report sets a good precedent.

“We cannot just close our eyes to these things and [if we do], then we are not holding people accountable. And this is the reason why you are getting so many kinds of infractions in the system. So I think the full report they released, even in terms of the value-for-money arrangement that SML and GRA are making, we still didn’t get any information on what kind of investment SML has made to warrant what they say is a fee-for-performance arrangement.

“So I have many questions that I think need to be followed up to allow this arrangement to go in whatever way that we are thinking about.

"I think the release is important. It sets a good precedent but we should expect that there should be proactive disclosure from the Presidency once it took the matter up and said it was in the public interest to do that,” Mr. Asante added.