Lawyer for Strategic Mobilization Ghana Limited (SML), Cephas Boyuo, has dismissed claims by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) that the company’s revenue assurance work for the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) produced “no value for money.”

Boyuo insists that data from both the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the Bank of Ghana prove that SML’s intervention significantly reduced fuel losses and under-declarations in Ghana’s downstream petroleum sector.

“Before SML came in, Ghana lost 3.2 billion litres to leakages and under-declarations within just 16 months for petrol, diesel, and LPG,” Boyuo said.

“When SML was deployed in May 2020, the gap reduced to 260 million litres — and this was sustained for over four and a half years.”

He emphasised that the improvement was not coincidental or due to market growth, as the OSP suggested, but the direct result of SML’s monitoring systems.

“The data from NPA and the Bank of Ghana confirm that this was SML closing loopholes, not natural growth as claimed by the OSP,” Boyuo said.

“Please, you can fact-check it. The official records speak for themselves.”

According to him, between January 2019 and April 2020 — the period before SML’s deployment — revenue losses were widespread across the sector, prompting the GRA to adopt a technology-based approach to sealing loopholes in fuel reporting and taxation.

Boyuo argued that the OSP’s assessment of the company’s performance failed to consider this verifiable data and instead painted an unfair picture of SML’s role.

“Why are we doing this to our state institutions?” he questioned. “The same institutions — the NPA and Bank of Ghana — are confirming that the people have worked, yet others are claiming nothing was done.”

The OSP’s probe into SML followed public concerns over a revenue assurance contract between the company and the GRA, with allegations of procurement breaches and overvaluation.

However, SML maintains that its services have helped the state recover billions in potential revenue losses and insists its operations are transparent, data-backed, and duly verified by relevant authorities.