Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has launched a strong criticism of Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML), describing the company’s meters as “useless” and less efficient than existing systems used by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
Reacting to recent comments by SML’s lawyer, Cephas Boyuo, Manasseh Azure said the company’s meters have never been used by the GRA for tax collection under the assurance contract.
Speaking during an interview on Channel One TV’s The Big Issue with Selorm Adonoo on Saturday, November 8, Manasseh claimed: “SML’s measurement of those petroleum volumes has never, not even a single month, been used by the GRA to collect taxes. When we investigated, we found out that the meters SML brought used ultrasound technology.
He added: “They are installed outside the pipelines, so they don’t take accurate readings like the existing ones. So GRA has never used the SML meters for tax purposes.”
According to him, the claim that SML’s meters have never failed is misleading.
“You don’t bring less efficient meters. They claim they used them for revenue assurances. If you bring in meters to police the existing ones, common sense should detect who was employing them to bring superior technology to police what is already there. You don’t bring less efficient meters,” he asserted.
Manasseh also referenced findings from KPMG’s audit report, noting that, “SML recorded the least readings within the period KPMG audited. This year that we’re getting billions of revenue from gold, this company would have been making so much just by putting some useless meters somewhere and would have been getting credit for growth in mining.”
At a separate press conference on Friday, November 7, SML’s lawyer, Cephas Boyuo, had dismissed assertions by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) that the company’s use of waybill scanning in its operations indicated system failure.
He argued that the OSP’s conclusions reflected “a clear misunderstanding of the petroleum downstream industry,” explaining that “waybill authentication is a standard verification method, not a sign of malfunction.”
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