Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has expressed concerns regarding President Akufo-Addo’s comments on the audit report conducted by KPMG on the revenue mobilisation transaction between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML).
Per the audit report, the collaboration between the GRA and SML resulted in the government earning GHC2.45 billion from the downstream petroleum sector.
In reaction, Mr Simons disputed “their claim that any increase in petroleum consumption should be attributed to SML.”
“We demand an open forum to show that the weight of expert opinion in Ghana is against any such claim,” he added.
Mr Simons stressed the significance of the President acknowledging the infractions in awarding the SML contracts, particularly in light of the observations made in the press statement issued by the Presidency concerning the audit.
He further called for the President to make the full audit report by KPMG public.
“We insist on seeing the full KPMG report.”
President Akufo-Addo endorsed KPMG’s recommendation to discontinue the upstream petroleum and minerals audit services previously provided to the GRA by SML, as communicated by Eugene Arhin, the Communications Director at the Presidency, in a press statement on Wednesday, April 24.
The statement also revealed that SML received a total payment of GH¢1,061,054,778.00 from 2018 to the present.