In response to the investigative documentary titled ‘The GH¢3 Billion Lie’ by investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure, the Technical Assistant to the Managing Director of Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML), Richard Marfo, has leveled allegations against the journalist.
Mr Marfo claims that Manasseh deliberately fabricated the contract details presented in the exposé.
Specifically, Mr Marfo emphasized that Manasseh misrepresented key aspects of the contract, particularly the duration, asserting that the actual contract was for five years, not the ten years reported in the documentary.
He accused Manasseh of selectively redacting and manipulating information to create a false narrative, questioning the accuracy and credibility of the investigative piece.
In a categorical denial, SML refuted the claims made in the documentary, challenging the media outfit to produce any contract evidence supporting the allegations.
“Manasseh has had PR works in the public. But we also want to use a little time to clarify some things. The first thing I want to put out there is the context in which Manassseh asks the questions as if he is doing a documentary within the downstream and those are the answers he had.
“The next is that the contract in question was 10 years. What Manasseh did has done a big and deliberate disservice to SML. A contract of five years, he went to the page where it stated 10 years, redacted whatever is in there. You can get this on section 3.1 of the contrat. Look at it carefully even the word contractor, he wrote there, contract. He put this thing out there and claims that that is the contract,” he said this on Joy News programme, which was monitored by GhanaWeb.
“…I am asking, where is that source coming from? We are claiming that Manasseh put those words together and at the right times, we will seek legal redress on those matters.”
Additionally, SML rejected the assertion of receiving $100 million annually from its contract, dismissing these claims as baseless and purely speculative.
Mr Marfo raised questions about the reliability of Manasseh’s sources, indicating the company’s intention to pursue legal action to address the alleged misrepresentation.
The core controversy revolves around the documentary’s claims regarding the Ministry of Finance awarding a substantial contract to SML for monitoring Upstream Petroleum Production and auditing the value chain of Minerals and Metals Resources.
The investigative piece raised concerns about SML’s purported lack of experience in the petroleum industry and questioned payments for services not rendered.