On May 14, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) issued a denial of supposed claims that Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Ltd. (SML), had been authorised to expand its revenue assurance role to include the upstream petroleum and solid minerals sectors.

This denial, according to the GRA in an unsigned statement issued by its Communication and Public Affairs Department, follows widespread media reports suggesting that SML had unveiled a new mandate to oversee revenue mobilisation in those critical extractive industries.

The GRA maintained that its suspension of SML’s services in the upstream petroleum and mineral sectors pending further review issued in April 2024 remains in force, adding that it (GRA) “…has not instructed SML to activate nor resume operations under the 2023 Consolidation of Revenue Assurance Services Contract covering those sectors.”

In an interesting twist however, officials of SML have denied making any claim the company has actually expanded its operations to the sectors concerned.

Myjoyonline.com has chanced upon a letter from the Office of the President dated 4th December 2024, in which former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo expressed “no objection to implementing the Upstream and Minerals Revenue Assurance System” of SML.

The letter, signed by Kow Abaka Essuman, then acting Secretary to the President, was addressed to the Commissioner-General of the GRA in response to a request for executive consent on the matter. It was copied the Vice President, the Chief of Staff, and the Minister of Finance.

However, the GRA’s current position makes clear that, despite that presidential green light, no directive has since been issued to SML to commence operations in those sectors.

The Authority stressed that all such activities remain under suspension and subject to further review.

The issue of SML’s role in Ghana’s revenue assurance framework has been a subject of public debate, particularly following concerns about the transparency and scope of its contracts with the state.

However at a recent forum on "Tackling Tax Revenue Leakages in Ghana" a Senior Lecturer and Projects Coordinator at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Dr Eric Boachie Yiadom presented a findings from an independent study on the effectiveness of technological solutions in revenue assurance, highlighting Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Ltd (SML) as a case study, and called for the strengthening of national institutions and the embrace of technology to plug persistent tax revenue leakages in Ghana.

“We cannot build a nation based on trust. Strong nations are built on strong institutions,” Dr Yiadom said. “Whether someone is trustworthy or not, a robust system ensures compliance,” he had argued.

Quoting data from regulatory bodies and policy think tanks, including the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), and Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Dr Yiadom noted that discrepancies between reported petroleum lifting volumes and actual taxable volumes had previously reached 3.2 billion litres in a year. However, following SML’s engagement in mid-2020, this figure dropped by over 91%, to 260 million litres annually.

Read the full report below.