The Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Ben Boakye, has expressed deep concern over the Ghana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) letter to the President.
The letter from GRA appealed to President Akufo-Addo to permit the operation of the Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML-Ghana) system, aimed at enhancing revenue assurance for control purposes.
President Akufo-Addo had earlier directed the suspension of the GRA/SML contract on January 2, appointing the international audit and accounting firm, KPMG, to conduct an audit within two weeks.
The Commissioner General of GRA, Rev. Dr. Amishaddai Owusu-Amoah, argued that suspending the SML system would cause disruptions in operations.
The GRA’s letter stated, “Having carefully reviewed the concern and based on our own understanding of the contracts and the deliverable, we are of the opinion that the system that has been installed to enhance revenue assurance, for control purposes, and also to aid with the ongoing investigation could with your kindest permission be allowed to run.”
Ben Boakye, reacting to this statement on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, criticized GRA for not substantiating their request with sufficient evidence to support the claimed consequences of suspending SML’s operation.
He pointed out that when the suspension occurred, SML welcomed it and pledged to wait for the investigation’s completion within two weeks.
Mr Boakye expressed concern over the GRA Commissioner General’s approach, stating, “When the suspension happened, SML welcomed the suspension and communicated that they were going to wait for the investigation to be over. The investigation was to be conducted within the space of two weeks.
“The Commissioner General waited for almost that time to elapse and then writes to the President to essentially tell the President that ‘Mr. President you are the appointing authority, we would only comply even though you’re wrong, we’ll comply as you wish but allow us to continue to run the system’, essentially telling the President that he had wrong judgement on suspending the arrangement until investigations were over and I find that really, really troubling,” he said.
“And also to the fact that when the commissioner general writes essentially five paragraphs to tell the president that he should allow the contract to persist, he doesn’t provide any data and justification to tell the president why the president is wrong and he is right. And it feeds into that broad context of lack of accountability for how things happen in this country.
He further criticized the GRA for failing to counter the controversy with factual information and contributing to the opacity in government dealings.
“We have copiously provided data to show that this contract could not have been informed by credible data and capacity and understanding of how the industry works.
Mr Boakye emphasized the need for the Commissioner General to challenge the data supporting the contract and engage in a transparent conversation with the public to address concerns about the contract’s credibility.
“So if the Commissioner General still insists that it is in the interest of Ghana for this contract to persist, what he needs to do is to challenge the data that has been put out, turning the conversation that the public is actually driving and let him know that he and the finance minister along. And it couldn’t have been a genuine intention to save Ghana money and he’s still dancing around the issue.”