KPMG’s audit report on the contract signed between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) reveals that multi-year contracts lack parliamentary approval.
According to the KPMG report released by Communications Director of the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, GRA engaged SML for various services, including transaction audit services, external price verification, and downstream petroleum audits, without parliamentary approval.
Under section 33 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921), multi-year contracts must have ministerial and parliamentary approval.
However, there is no evidence that the 2018 and 2019 contracts with SML were submitted to the GRA Board for discussion and approval, as required by the GRA Act, Corporate Governance Manual for Governing Boards/Councils of the Public Services, and sound corporate governance practices.
The GRA Board did approve the extension of SML’s services to cover auditing of the upstream petroleum and minerals sectors, as specified in the 2023 Contract, which also lacked parliamentary approval for the period stated in the information above.
The lack of parliamentary approval for these contracts raises concerns about the oversight and accountability of GRA’s contracting processes.
