An audit conducted by KPMG into the revenue mobilization transaction between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilization Ghana Ltd (SML) has unveiled that the latter received a total of GH¢1,061,054,778.00 from 2018 to the present date.
The revelation surfaced in a press statement issued by the Communications Director of the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, on Wednesday, April 24.
President Akufo-Addo commissioned KPMG to audit the contract between the two entities on January 2, 2024.
The audit’s deadline was initially set for Tuesday, January 16, 2024, but was extended to Friday, February 23, 2024.
As the deadline approached, many Ghanaians urged the president to release the report’s findings to the public.
According to the April 24 press statement from the Presidency, “the total fees paid under the contracts from 2018 to the date of suspension amount to GH¢1,061,054,778.00. No fee has been paid for the upstream petroleum audit and minerals audit services.”
Furthermore, it mentioned that “the total fees estimated to be paid to SML under the 2023 Contract for five years is GH¢5,173,091,857.00, which averages to about GH¢1 billion per year.”
After a comprehensive examination of the audit report, the president supported the recommendation to terminate the upstream petroleum and minerals audit services previously rendered to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) by Strategic Management Limited (SML).
Additionally, he instructed the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Finance to renegotiate the contract.
The Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, has suggested that the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Rev Amishaddai Owusu-Amoah, may face legal repercussions for continuing in his role without a contract extension from the Ministry of Finance.
Rev Amishaddai Owusu-Amoah, who exceeds the age of 60, is mandated by law to possess a valid contract to serve as the GRA boss. However, he has been in office for approximately two years without the necessary authorization from the appointing authority.
According to Mr. Dafeamekpor, Rev Owusu-Amoah should not be in his position without proper documentation and predicts that legal action will be taken against him.
“The collusion and the cronyism and politics is what is eating our system away. For this matter if it is not politics, which country will this happen? And he too, it doesn’t bother him to prompt that you must regularize my stay?… People [like Rev Owusu-Amoah] don’t care any longer but a day is coming that they will care,” Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor said in an interview with Okay FM.
In an interview with Okay FM, Mr. Dafeamekpor expressed concern about the prevailing issues of collusion, cronyism, and politics within the system.
He emphasized that in any other country, such a situation would not be tolerated, questioning why Rev Owusu-Amoah has not taken steps to regularize his stay.
Mr. Dafeamekpor highlighted the violation of working without a contract, drawing attention to the Auditor General’s repeated citations of this issue.
Despite Rev Owusu-Amoah acknowledging, during a Public Accounts Committee session, that he was over 60 and had been requested by the Finance Minister to continue with a written contract, the government has yet to take immediate steps to regularize his tenure at the GRA, as per Mr. Dafeamekpor’s perspective.
The government has decided to terminate the contracts of three contractors involved in the Agenda 111 hospital projects in the Ashanti region.
These projects are located in Kunsu, Ahafo Ano South-West District; Manso Adubia, Amansie South District; and Nsuta, Sekyere Central District of the Ashanti Region.
According to the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, these contractors failed to meet the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) set for the projects.
This announcement was made during a press briefing held at the Trede project site in the Atwima Kwanwoma District of the Ashanti region, where a hospital project is currently 62 percent complete.
Mr. Nkrumah urged all contractors involved in the hospital projects to ensure they meet the KPIs to avoid facing contract termination as well.
Additionally, the Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr. Nsiah Asare, reassured that the Agenda 111 projects would not be affected by IMF conditionalities.
He also provided assurance to unemployed health workers, particularly nurses and doctors, that more job opportunities would be available when the projects are completed.
Ghana and the British government are poised to sign a nurse-for-cash contract.
Health Minister Kweku Agyeman-Manu stated on the floor of parliament on Monday, 5 December 2022 during a discussion of the 2023 budget that each nurse Ghana sends to the UK will likely cost the West African nation £1,000 once the arrangement is finalized.
In accordance with a previous agreement reached between the two nations, nurses from Ghana are already being dispatched to Barbados.
“Mr. Speaker, as you are aware, we have begun sending our nurses abroad on a bilateral basis, and the second cohort of nurses has been dispatched to Barbados as a result of the agreement we struck with that country.
Why would they come for both, Mr. Speaker?
Now that we’re hearing about it in Barbados, patients are asking for Ghanaian nurses to be by their bedsides, and I think that’s good news for us,” said Mr. Agyeman-Manu.
“And, out of these nurses, Ghana is going to benefit from some little monies that the UK government will pass on”, he noted, explaining: “For every single nurse that goes away – when we finish the agreement – it’s likely we’ll get a £1,000 to come back to support our health system”.
Ninety-five Ghanaian nurses (49 women and 46 men) on Thursday, 30 July 2020 arrived in Barbados on an Azores Airlines chartered flight for a two-year contract.
They were to help the Caribbean country’s healthcare system.
In March 2022, the Prime Minister of the Island nation, Mia Motley, said during Ghana’s 65th independence anniversary in the Central Region, at which she was the special guest of honour, that: “I stand here on your Independence Day to thank the people of Ghana for being able to support us in our need for nurses, with the first 95 nurses having gone to Barbados in July 2020.”
“We thank you, the government of the people of Ghana, for that most generous gesture, and we are heartened that they have made a huge difference to our public healthcare system; so much so that we have completed an interview for another 200 nurses to come to Barbados in the near future,” she added.
In November 2019, the Foreign Ministers of Ghana and Barbados, on behalf of the governments and peoples of their respective countries, signed an agreement for the recruitment of a total of 120 nurses from Ghana to complement the staffing needs of the island nation.
The agreement was signed on Friday, 15 November 2019 at Ghana’s Jubilee House, when the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, paid a courtesy call on the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, as part of her official visit.
The objective of the agreement is to provide the framework for the provision of nurses by the Republic of Ghana to Barbados, taking cognisance of the existing commitment of Barbados to accepted international workforce policies and practices, as well as the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Code of Ethics for nurses.
The scope of services and responsibilities include Ghana providing registered nurses to Barbados with a level of expertise as agreed to by both countries, with Barbados providing Ghanaian nurses safe and secure working conditions for professional practice, and medical treatment where needed.
Remuneration is commensurate with the terms and conditions of Barbadian local registered nurses. Barbados is also to provide professional support to Ghanaian nurses to comply with the guidelines and rules of the Nursing Council of Barbados.
A total of 150 short-listed candidates underwent interviews, out of which 120 were to have been chosen.
The qualified nurses possess a minimum of three years of experience, with specialities in the following areas: critical care, cardiac catheterisation, emergency room, operating theatre, and ophthalmology.
It will be recalled that on 15 June 2019, during an official visit to Barbados, as part of activities to promote the declaration of 2019 as the Year of Return, President Akufo-Addo, in principle, agreed to a request by Prime Minister Mottley to send some nurses to work in a number of medical facilities in Barbados.
Addressing a press conference in the aftermath of the bilateral discussions, and with Barbados facing an acute nursing shortage, the Barbadian Prime Minister stated that “we have indicated that we are searching for just under 400 nurses, so it is not a small number, and we really do believe that this is a wonderful opportunity of co-operation between our two countries.”
In addition, she noted that there was also an initial promise to secure the nurses and provide joint education programmes going forward, all in an attempt to secure Barbados’ healthcare sector.
For his part, President Akufo-Addo indicated that “we have a surplus of nurses in Ghana, and placing them all in our public health system is one of my headaches. There have been a lot (of nurses) produced, which, for several years, we have not been able to do anything with.”
He continued, “So, I am going back. I will be back in Accra on Monday, and, the week after, the Prime Minister will hear from me on this matter of nurses.”
The Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah has asked road contractors who are unable to undertake road contracts awarded them to return their contract certificates.
There abound a litany of roads awarded on contracts, yet contractors are not on site as some have abandoned work midstream with the excuse of they not being paid by government for works so far executed.
“There are a lot of road contracts in the western region, what we have seen is that some contractors are not doing their best. What we are saying is that any contractor who is not ready for the contract should write a letter to the ministry detailing his or her inability to fulfill the contract so that we re-award it. We are not ready to plead with any contractor again”, he emphasized.
The Western Region in recent times has seen some agitations by chiefs and indigenes over poor roads for which politicians keep emphasizing are on contract. The attitude by the contractors is seen as unfair by the Western Regional Minister.
“When the contractors were coming for the tendering process they brought along letters from their respective banks assuring the government that they had enough money to complete the contract. So if all of a sudden you turn around and complain of insufficient funds to complete the work then it means you are trying to deceive the government.”
he fumed over.
Just this week, chiefs in the Ahanta West Municipality have had to take to demonstrating over poor roads at Sankor – Cape 3 points although for the past 2 years they kept being impressed upon that the roads are all on contract since 2020 yet no contractor is on-site till date.
The Porcupine Warriors club announced the player in an official release and stated that they signed him on a free transfer.
“New in the City of Kumasi is Ernest Osei Poku.
“The midfielder joins us on a free transfer in a three-year deal having completed routine medical checks. Welcome Osei,†a post on the Twitter page of Asante Kotoko said on Monday, August 15.
The signing of Ernest Osei Poku is to provide a major squad boost for the Reds. Having won the Ghana Premier League title last season, Asante Kotoko will next season compete in the CAF Champions League while battling for titles domestically.
