The Fourth Estate’s groundbreaking report, The GHȼ3 Billion Lie and the Billion Dollar Contract, has been recognised as the second-best African Investigative Journalism report at the prestigious African Investigative Journalist of the Year Awards, held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The award ceremony capped the 2024 African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC), hosted by the Wits Centre for Journalism. This year’s conference received 158 entries, celebrating the crucial role investigative journalism plays in promoting transparency and accountability across the African continent.

Investigative reporter Evans Aziamor-Mensah, who represented The Fourth Estate at the event, expressed gratitude upon receiving the award, stating, "We are grateful for the honour bestowed upon us. This is a testament to the power of quality journalism."

The panel of judges, led by renowned investigative journalist Gwen Lister, commended the team for their meticulous attention to detail, strong sourcing, and thorough editing—qualities that set the report apart.

“Judges were impressed by the quality of the information, the high level of sourcing, and the comprehensive editing of the piece,” said Lister.

Now in its 20th year, the conference served as a platform for journalists from across Africa to network, share their work, and engage in discussions on key issues such as climate change, artificial intelligence, and media sustainability.

This latest accolade adds to a growing list of awards for The Fourth Estate, including recognition from the World Justice Challenge, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), and the KAS Media Africa Awards, all of which the publication and its journalists have received this year.

The award-winning investigation, conducted by Evans Aziamor-Mensah, Adwoa Adobea-Owusu, and Manasseh Azure Awuni, uncovered troubling details about a sole-sourced revenue assurance contract awarded to Strategic Mobilization Limited (SML) Ghana. Despite SML’s lack of experience in the downstream petroleum sector, the company claimed to have saved Ghana GHȼ3 billion in potential revenue losses.

In the report, The Fourth Estate’s investigation revealed that SML had been granted an expanded contract worth nearly $100 million annually to oversee revenue in the upstream petroleum and gold mining sectors.

These revelations prompted President Akufo-Addo to suspend the contract and commission an independent audit by KPMG. KPMG’s findings corroborated The Fourth Estate’s report and recommended the potential cancellation or renegotiation of the contract. As a result, the Ghana Revenue Authority cancelled the external price verification and transaction audit component of the contract—valued at $450 million over five years—while the $100 million annual audit contract for the upstream petroleum sector was suspended indefinitely.

Following the investigation, five civil society organisations filed a lawsuit demanding that the government recover $141 million already paid to SML.

#AIJC2024 Awards | Second place goes to a hard-hitting team effort from Ghanaian journalists @Manasseh_Azure, Adwoa Adobea-Owusu and @EvansDelasie for their series of investigations titled, "The GH₵ 3 Billion Lie." Congratulations, team! Evans accepts the award. pic.twitter.com/Ddw2ubDtWA

— African Investigative Journalism Conference (@AIJC_Conference) October 31, 2024