The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has revealed that contracts awarded to Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Finance were secured through self-serving official patronage rather than any genuine operational need.

This was disclosed in the OSP’s 2025 Half-Yearly Report, signed by Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng, following investigations into SML’s engagement for revenue assurance services across the downstream petroleum sector, upstream petroleum production, and the minerals and metals value chain.

The report said that the investigations revealed no legitimate basis for contracting SML to perform the functions it claimed to provide.

According to the report, the contracts were promoted and secured through official sponsorship based on false and unverified claims about SML’s technical capacity and performance.

"The SML contracts were attended by egregious statutory breaches as mandatory prior approvals were wantonly disregarded by relevant officials who acted with increased emboldened impunity," it said.

The investigation also uncovered the absence of any credible financial management or verification system to ensure value for money.

Payments to SML, the report stated, were structured on an automatic basis and were not tied to actual performance, a situation that resulted in substantial financial loss to the Republic.

According to the OSP, former Finance Minister Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta; his former Chef de Cabinet, Ernest Darko Akore; former GRA Commissioners-General Emmanuel Kofi Nti and Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah; former Customs Commissioner Isaac Crentsil; former Customs Commissioner and Jaman South MP, Col. (rtd) Kwadwo Damoah; and SML’s Chief Executive and beneficial owner, Evans Adusei, conspired to influence the procurement process to secure unfair advantage for SML.

The report states that the group acted together to establish what it described as a criminal enterprise aimed at manipulating procurement processes for transaction audit services, external price verification, and measurement audits in the petroleum and minerals sectors, purportedly on behalf of the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Finance and the GRA.

"The actions of these persons created the opportunity for SML to largely pretend to perform the services under the various contracts – leading to immense financial loss to the Republic of about One Billion Four Hundred and Thirty-Six Million Two Hundred and Forty-Nine Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-Eight Cedis Fifty-Three Pesewas (GH₵1,436,249,828.53)," the OSP said.

It said investigators also rejected claims used to justify the contracts, including assertions that SML possessed unique technical expertise or patented technology capable of significantly improving revenue assurance. The report described these representations as false and misleading.

On October 31, 2025, following the presentation of the investigation’s outcome, the President directed the immediate cancellation of all public procurement contracts awarded to SML by the GRA and the Ministry of Finance.

According to the OSP, the intervention saved the Republic approximately GH¢5.73 billion.

"The accused in the SML case deliberately sought to deprive the Republic of a further Two Billion Seven Hundred and Ninety-Nine Million Six Hundred and Four Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-Four United States Dollars Seventy-One Cents (US$ 2,799,604,864.71)," the OSP added.