Political Risk Analyst Dr. Theo Acheampong has backed calls for the termination of the contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML).

Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML), an offshoot of a timber company, has been tasked with undertaking revenue assurance services in the gold and petroleum production sector for the government. 

Following an investigative report in December of 2023 by The Fourth Estate, it was revealed that SML Ghana won the sole-sourced contract though it had no prior experience in revenue assurance.

It also found that the company had no evidence to back its claim that it had saved the nation from potential revenue losses amounting to GH₵3 billion.

Commenting on the contract on JoyNews’ Newsfile Saturday, Dr Acheampong noted that the task assigned to SML Ghana is already being carried out by other state regulators, thus there was no need to bring in a third party.

He said the contract was totally unnecessary and should be terminated.

“Luckily I have worked in this space over the last ten-plus years on both mining, oil and gas and then the downstream sector. And I can say on authority that this contract is not needed. The expanded contract or even the one that was done before is not needed and should be terminated or abrogated.

“So in that regard, given what Manasseh has just said and others have also said it is very clear that the SML contract is not needed, number two it does not add any value, and even some of the purported claims when you actually look at the data and you do the analysis it cannot be substantiated for one reason or the other,” he said.

Dr. Acheampong further added that even if there was the need to bring in a revenue assurance partner to audit players in the gold and petroleum sectors, SML is still not a perfect fit for that role.

“So if you now say you’re going to do an audit and even this audit we’re not sure exactly what SML was going to d...if you even wanted to do for example a cost audit, there are companies that are out there that have one the capability and the capacity to do a thorough piece of work on cost auditing than what SML purports to have done.

“So if you look at the evidence and what the agencies do already there’s nothing whatsoever that SML would have done that adds any value to what currently exists because the agencies by law do these audits themselves anyway in that regard,” he said.

Meanwhile, the President has ordered KPMG to independently audit the contract.

The Special Prosecutor has also announced he will be investigating the processes that led to the contract.