Sam George is the Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations

The Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, is addressing Ghanaians on accomplishment made so far under his Ministry.

He is expected to provide update under the Government accountability series.

Watch the livestream below

National Democratic Congress (NDC) Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketia has attributed the party’s improved 2024 electoral performance in Ghana’s Ashanti Region a New Patriotic Party (NPP) stronghold to a deliberate strategy of dismantling opposition “misinformation” and reclaiming media visibility.

In an interview with Ambassador TV, Nketia asserted:

“The NPP thrived by sidelining pro-NDC radio stations and flooding airwaves with their narrative. This year, we collapsed that system by taking over the airwaves and campaigning aggressively in areas previously ignored.”

The NDC’s approach included:

Media Counteroffensive: Breaking the NPP’s dominance of local radio to challenge historical narratives and misinformation.

Ground Operations: Campaigning intensively in Ashanti despite its traditional NPP allegiance.

Rejecting “Stronghold” Mentality: Declaring the erosion of rigid regional political fortresses in Ghana’s evolving democracy.

Nketia signaled sustained focus on Ashanti ahead of future elections: “We’ll annex more seats because stronghold politics is fading.” The NDC’s inroads mark a notable shift in Ghana’s electoral dynamics, where Ashanti Region contributed significantly to the NPP’s past victories.

The Ashanti Region delivered 76.6% of votes to the NPP in 2020. The NDC’s 2024 gains there—though not decisive—reflect a strategic breakthrough.

A building structure being developed at a ramsar site

The Greater Accra Regional Security Council (REGSEC) has scheduled a planned demolition exercise at the Tema Ramsar site for Monday, August 4, 2025.

The exercise, to be led by Greater Accra Regional Minister, Linda Ocloo, aims to demolish unauthorised structures built on the site.

According to a report by citinewsroom.com on Friday, August 1, 2025, some of the affected areas include Tema Communities 5, 6, 10, 11, and 12.

Linda Ocloo raised concerns about the growing rate of illegal encroachments on the protected site, describing it as a ‘serious threat to the ecological integrity of the Ramsar Site,’ and pledged to take swift action to halt the degradation of wetlands across the country.

“This is a protected area, and we cannot allow private developers or individuals to compromise its long-term environmental value,” the minister is quoted as saying by citinewsroom.com.

The minister directed her attention toward individuals who illegally sell protected lands within the wetland for development, warning them to desist from such acts.

She firmly stressed that the government would not hesitate to take legal action against any individuals found culpable.

Meanwhile, residents occupying the affected structures have been asked to vacate the area before the demolition.

MAG/VPO

Meanwhile, watch as Prophet Worlasi shares bombshell prophesies on Bawumia and NPP on The Lowdown:

President John Dramani Mahama has, in the strongest terms, condemned the recent assaults on journalists by security personnel, describing the incident as “unacceptable”.

He has subsequently ordered immediate investigations into the matter, especially the alleged assault on JoyNews reporter, Carlos Calony, by soldiers who supervised a demolition exercise.

He has specifically ordered the Minister for Defence and the National Security Coordinator to commence immediate investigations into the incident, which has since gone viral on social and mainstream media.

President Mahama gave the order at a ceremony to swear in the last four deputy ministers who have been approved by parliament.

He said, “Allow me to condemn in the strongest terms the recent incident involving the manhandling of some journalists by our security personnel. Such conduct is unacceptable and will not be tolerated”.

“As a card-bearing member of the Ghana Journalists Association, I will not preside over a government that abuses or intimidates journalists in the lawful exercise of their duty”. He continued.

According to President Mahama, “A free and responsible press is indispensable to our democracy and we must all work to protect the media.”

He promised to convene a meeting between the heads of the security services and the leadership of the GJA soon to plan a programme to orient security personnel to recognise the “media not as enemies but as partners in development.”

The order and the assurance of the president come on the heels of a recent rise in multiple incidents of assault on journalists by state security operatives.

During the parliamentary election re-run at the Ablekuma North constituency, a journalist with GHOne, Kwabena Agyekum Banahene, was heavily assaulted by a senior police officer.

The latest assault occurred when a journalist with JoyNews was allegedly maltreated by soldiers in uniform who were providing security for the demolition of a warehouse on the Spintex Road next to Action Chapel.

The facility is said to belong to the Executive Chairman of the McDan Group, Daniel McKorley.

NAAB/SEA

Meanwhile, watch as Prophet Worlasi shares bombshell prophesies on Bawumia and NPP on The Lowdown:

Martin Kpebu is a legal practitioner

Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has proposed that suspended Chief Justice, Gertrude Araba Sackey Torkornoo, seeks a political settlement with President John Dramani Mahama regarding her impeachment process.

According to him, a possible settlement would allow the Chief Justice and the president to discuss her terms and what she requires in order to willingly resign in a manner that preserves her dignity, career, and reputation.

Kpebu made the statement on JoyNews on July 31, 2025, in response to the Accra High Court’s dismissal of Justice Torkornoo’s judicial review application, which cited, among other issues, a violation of her rights by the committee investigating the petitions against her.

“… Perhaps that avenue to resign is not available to her that’s why you see that she’s going nine miles. So, in this context, I once again implore our senior statesmen to come together and then perhaps approach her. If she consents, then they will approach the president and the other stakeholders so that they negotiate something for her to go, so that she resigns… I think a political settlement where she exits in a dignified manner is better,” Kpebu proposed.

He added that a political settlement would help the state avoid paying the compensation of $10million Justice Torkornoo is seeking at the ECOWAS Court, should the ruling go in her favor.

“That would help us because right now, it appears looking at our state of development, we are not quite there,” he continued.

Kpebu, however, commended her for the boldness she showed in raising issues that are often overlooked within the judiciary, such as nepotism, political interference, and other systemic concerns in her application.

“The matters she’s thrown out has forced certain conversations that ordinarily we wouldn’t have. You see, she raised issues of bribery, issues of nepotism, issues of political influence, matters that usually we hesitate to hold frankly in the no-holds-barred fashion. These are matters that when it comes to the judiciary, we are coy, shy about them. But I see that she’s forced the conversation,” he added.

MAG/AE

Meanwhile, watch as Prophet Worlasi shares bombshell prophesies on Bawumia and NPP on The Lowdown:

Three days before the December 2024 election, the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) awarded a revenue assurance and auditing contract to Evatex Logistics Limited, a mining and stevedoring company with no prior experience in performing this service.

This shady revenue assurance and auditing contract appeared to be backdated (as would be proven shortly), for evidence points to the possibility that the contract was signed after the New Patriotic Party lost the election in 2024. The immediate past board chairman of the GACL, Paul Adom-Otchere, did not deny the allegation by management of the GACL that he brought the shady company. He has also confirmed that the procurement process for this shady contract started at the board level.

The Managing Director of the Airports Company, Yvonne Nana Afriyie Opare, said the GACL awarded the contract to Evatex because the Airports Company lacked internal capacity, including personnel and time to deliver the service. However, while the Airport company has 1,580 employees on its payroll, information we obtained from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) indicates that Evatex has only one worker. The GACL’s Audit, Risk Management and Compliance department alone has nine staff—eight permanent workers and a national service person.

This information was also contained in the documents the company submitted to the GACL for the contract. So, the Ghana Airports Company awarded the contract to Evatex, knowing that it had only one employee.

The SSNIT Clearance Certificate shows that Evatex has only one worker Our investigation revealed that Evatex Logistics Limited is linked to SML, the company that was paid US$141 million by the government for shady auditing and revenue assurance contracts with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Finance.

At the time of our first exposé on SML, the former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, had caused the SML deal to be expanded to the upstream petroleum sector and gold mining sector, entitling the company to more than US$100 million a year for five years, subject to another five-year renewal.

While the shady SML contract came under intense scrutiny and multiple investigations, the company managed to gain entry into the Ghana Airport Company through its subsidiary, Evatex, to perform what it termed ‘revenue assurance services’.

Details of how Evatex, which did not officially bid for the contract and did not appear before the GACL board for a presentation, was selected under circumstances that the Executive Director for the Africa Centre for Energy Policy, Ben Boakye, describes as bizarre.

Our investigations revealed that the email address on the website of Evatex—[email protected]— is the same as the email address on the website of Evans Timbers Limited, the parent company of SML.

A search at the Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) also revealed that SML and Evatex, the mining company that won the airport contract, have the same beneficial owner, Evans Adusei. In fact, Evans Adusei is both the CEO of SML and Evatex. He signed the contract with the Ghana Airports Company.

The list of employees submitted by Evatex to the Ghana Airports Company to execute its contract contains the names of notable SML employees and managers. Apart from SML’s CEO, SML’s head of engineering, Hamdam Abubakar, is on the Evatex list. SML’s head of IT, Prince Opoku Sarpong, is also on the list to perform the Evatex contract at the airport.

A former head of Legal at the GRA, Philip Jude Mensah (now an SML employee) witnessed the Evatex contract with the Ghana Airports Company. He is on the Evatex list, together with a former Commissioner of Customs and now General Manager of SML, Isaac Crentsil.

In essence, SML, which now appears like a post-retirement destination for top GRA employees, sneaked to the airport disguised as Evatex.

“It clearly tells you that they [SML] admit that they have been doing things wrong and they don’t have the confidence to go bidding or working with the same company,” the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy, Ben Boakye, said of SML.

“If they were genuinely convinced that what they are doing is generating returns,” Mr Boakye added, “I don’t see why you would rather metamorphose into another company to go bid for another government project.”

However, the link to SML appears to be the least of the procurement and other legal infractions in the GACL contract with Evatex.

The Managing Director and board member of the Ghana Airports Company, Mrs. Yvonne Nana Afriyie Opare, said she did not know that SML and Evatex had any links at the time of the contract. This runs contrary to the account of the then board chairman of the GACL, Paul Adom-Otchere.

According to Adom-Otchere, who did not agree to a recorded interview, he remembered Evatex only by its links to SML, referring to Evatex as “the SML people ” in a phone call.

Paul Adom-Otchere revealed that the CEO of SML, Evans Adusei, whom he identified through media reports, was present when Evatex appeared before the GACL board for a presentation. As we would later show, Evatex did not appear before the GACL. A different company did the presentation and proved its capacity to the board, but the contract went to Evatex, SML’s sister company.

Sources close to Evans Adusei also deny he ever appeared before the GACL board, which suggests Paul Adom-Otchere knew the link between Evatex and SML before the board meeting.

Paul Adom-Otchere appeared to have met the SML CEO long before the board meeting. When we broke the news of the SML scandal in December 2023, Paul Adom-Otchere admitted to meeting SML’s management.

“When we heard the story yesterday, we dashed to their [SML’s] office. They are in Osu, not too far from us, and I sat down with them. Last night, I was with them,” Paul had said.

“We were quite convinced and satisfied that what they are saying is true, so we are going to share it with you,” he told viewers of his show, Good Evening Ghana, on Metro TV.

Evatex began its operations at the Kotoka International Airport in April 2025, and is yet to be paid.

But who brought Evatex to GACL?

Mrs. Yvonne Opare said that, per standard practice, firms wanting to do business with the Airport Company first approach management with a proposal. If interested, management would request a presentation or further engagement.

Management would then escalate it to the board if it thinks the board should be involved. In the case of the Evatex contract, however, the process started at the board level.

Multiple sources at the Ghana Airports Company said the board chairman, Paul Adom-Otchere, who had used his TV programme to defend SML, brought Evatex.

We asked Paul Adom-Otchere a direct question about the allegation from the GACL management. If he did not bring Evatex to GACL, we added, who brought the company to the board meetings, which he chaired?

Adom-Otchere would neither confirm nor deny this allegation, but said even if he brought them, it was not illegal.

“I do not clearly remember if I invited Devnest/ Evertext to the meeting to make the presentation towards revenue mobilisation,” Adom-Otchere stated in a WhatsApp message.

He added: “If I did introduce Devnest/ Evertext to the board it will not be contrary to any practice, indeed, it will be in accordance with section 188 (2) b of act 992 ( the companies code ) where-in directors are permitted to summon meetings ( through the company secretary ) with an agenda for the board to consider.”

This was not just a case of a director summoning a meeting with an agenda for the board to consider. It was the case of a board chairman bringing an unqualified company to the board for a presentation, after which the board recommended it for the award of a contract.

Evatex and SML not licensed to perform auditing and revenue assurance

SML and Evatex are not licensed to perform audit and revenue assurance services Further investigations revealed that Evatex Logistics Limited, just like SML, did not have the capacity to undertake the contract. A procurement expert, Kobina Atta-Bedu, has revealed that Evatex and SML should not qualify for audit and revenue assurance contracts without a license from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG).

In a right to information request to ICAG, we asked about “the position of ICAG Act 2020, Act 1058, regarding individuals and companies providing revenue assurance and auditing services in Ghana. Are such companies required to be licensed by the ICAG before they can practice or provide such services?”

The ICAG in a response letter dated July 25, 2025, said: “. Pursuant to sections 2 and 3 of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana Act, 2020 (Act 1058), the Institute is mandated to regulate the accountancy profession and practice in Ghana. Auditing and non-audit practice, as an essential component of the accountancy profession, fall within the regulatory oversight of the Institute.

In line with section 34 of Act 1058, all individuals and firms engaged in auditing activities are required to be licensed by the Institute. Failure to obtain the requisite licence constitutes an offence and attracts sanctions, including a fine, a term of imprisonment or both.”

On the licence status of Evatex and SML, the ICAG said, “Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) and Evatex Logistics Limited are not licensed by ICAG.”

Our search at the Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) revealed that at the time of winning the contract at the airport, Evatex did not even have auditing and revenue assurance as part of its principal activities.

Evatex only included “audit, revenue assurance, and software solutions” in its principal activities on February 6, 2025, three months after winning the airport contract to perform those services.

Devnest systems swapped for Evatex

GACL’s board minutes in relation to the Evatex contract reveal that the company that did the presentation to the board for the contract was Devnest Systems, and not Evatex. The board instructed the contract to be awarded to Devnest based on the presentation and the capacity the company demonstrated. Devnest was, however, replaced with Evatex when the GACL was writing to the PPA for approval to use the single-source procurement method.

Minutes from two board meetings and a letter from Devnest Systems to the GACL, which we obtained during our investigation, revealed that Devnest Systems appeared before the GACL board on three occasions.

The last appearance was on August 16, 2024, during which fees for the audit and revenue assurance services were agreed. The company, the board agreed, should be paid “16.5% of any excess revenue above GACL’s benchmarked revenue projections” for its service.

The concluding part of the minutes read:

“The Board also directed the service provider [Devnest Systems] to furnish GACL with a detailed proposal on the service to be provided and a draft contract for consideration. The Board further directed Management to seek and obtain the approval of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) for the sole sourcing of the service from the service provider upon receipt of the relevant documents from them.”

From that day, however, Devnest Systems disappeared from all the processes for the award of the contract. Instead of Devnest, Evatex was listed on the single-source request letter to the PPA. The Airports Company also awarded the contract to Evatex, based on the presentations by Devnest to the board and the subsequent fee agreement the board reached with the same company.

When we first contacted Paul Adom-Otchere on the phone, he said he did not remember the circumstances under which Evatex, instead of Devnest, was given the contract. Before he asked to refresh his memory and return with the answer, however, he said that if the two companies were subsidiaries, then there was nothing wrong. He, however, admitted that if the two companies were unrelated, then awarding the contract to Evatex based on the presentation made by Devnest Systems was problematic.

“You can’t have Company A come and do a presentation and then you award [to] unrelated Company B…If there’s actually no relationship [between the companies], then there’s a problem there,” Paul Adom-Otchere said in a phone call.

And that was what happened.

Our checks indicate that Devnest Systems and Evatex are two distinct companies, with separate shareholders and directors.

In a later response via WhatsApp after he had refreshed his memory on the matter, Paul Adom-Otchere said: “In response to your point 5, my consultation with the documents from the board indicates [sic] that while Devnest did the first presentation, Evetext came in subsequently.”

Contrary to Paul Adom-Otchere’s claim, there is no mention of Evatex in the board minutes we requested and obtained regarding the contract. He (Paul Adom-Otchere) chaired the meetings and signed the board minutes. When we pointed this out to him, he promised to respond the following day, July 28, 2025, but has failed to do so after another promise on July 30 to respond within the next hour.

The Managing Director of the Ghana Airports Company, Yvonne Nana Afriyie Opare, has justified this anomaly with a letter from the CEO of Devnest, Albert Adjei-Laryea, stating that the contract should be awarded to Evatex. This implies the state agency has admitted to being instructed by a private individual to handpick a company with only one employee and no track record for a government contract.

That letter also indicts the Paul Adom-Otchere board, which approved Devnest Systems for the contract. The letter by the Devnest CEO to the GACL said the company did not have the capacity to deliver the contract, and the reason it recommended Evatex for the contract.

Devnest Systems’ CEO’s name is listed as the project manager of the auditing and revenue assurance contract being executed by Evatex, which shows that he’s benefiting from the arrangement. A request for comment sent to him has yet to receive a response.

Backdated contract?

A close examination of the contract documents relating to the Evatex procurement shows inconsistencies in the dating of key actions, raising concerns that the contract may have been backdated. The PPA approval letter was dated December 2, 2024 and received by the Managing Director (MD) of the Airports Company on December 3.

The MD forwarded the PPA approval letter to the GACL’s Director of Procurement dated December 11, with a handwritten instruction to “proceed with the award letter.”

That instruction was received by the Director of Procurement on December 12, and the award letter was drafted accordingly and returned to the MD for signature.

The award letter, which was prepared in response to the December 11 instruction, was dated December 5, predating both the instruction and the procurement director’s receipt.

The contract with Evatex was also dated December 4, even though it was signed following the December 11 instruction.

The Managing Director, Yvonne Opare, said the dates could be a mistake, but there is evidence that appointments and contracts signed after an election often face serious scrutiny when a new party wins the election. By December 11, when the Managing Director made a note on the PPA approval to the procurement director, the opposition NDC had won the election, and the new government was likely to raise questions about contracts awarded after the election.

The GACL also claimed that its contract with Evatex was occasioned by an internal audit report that showed that the company’s handling of cargo services might be under-declaring revenues in the sector.

The internal audit report that necessitated the Evatex contract was submitted to the GACL in August 2024, but its board minutes reveal that the processes for the award of the Evatex contract began in June 2024. So, a contract whose processes started in June 2024 could not have been necessitated by a report submitted in August 2024.

Complicity of the PPA

Apart from the board and management of the Ghana Airports Company, another institution complicit in the Evatex deal is the PPA. In the letter requesting approval for the single source, the GACL claimed that Evatex had “a long and successful track record of carrying out similar assignments expeditiously.” This claim is not backed by any evidence, as the Devnest CEO’s letter urging the award of the contract to Evatex would later reveal, but the PPA approved.

The GACL letter did not even state a single reason why the contract should be awarded through single-source procurement, and not through competitive tendering, contrary to the PPA rules. But the PPA granted the approval without any question.

The request letter to the PPA, signed by Yvonne Opare, also stated: “Details in respect of the Team Composition, technical expertise and CVs of the proposed Team are in the attached profile (Annexe C).” They said Annexe C did not contain the team composition, technical expertise, and CVs of the proposed Team. The PPA did not raise questions but granted approval.

That Annexe C was still blank even in the final contract between Evatex and GACL, because Mrs. Yvonne Opare said at the time of signing the contract, Evatex had failed to submit the list of the team members.

In fact, the SSNIT document attached to the request to the PPA for single source clearly showed that Evatex had only one worker. This should have raised questions about the SML sister company’s competence, but the PPA failed to flag it.

Procurement expert, Kobina Atta-Bedu, said the PPA and the GACL violated the public procurement law in the Evatex contract. He said Evatex was not licensed to perform an audit, and revenue assurance should have outrightly disqualified the company from being awarded the contract.

A dormant company resurrected?

Evatex, SML’s sister company, also appeared to be dormant and was resurrected only for the Airports contract. Its tax record revealed that the company had zero chargeable income for 2022, 2023 and 2024, the year it won the Airports Contract.

Evatex paid no tax in 2022 and 2023.

The tax clearance certificate, which the company used for the Ghana Airports contract, shows that it was charged a tax of only 2000 cedis in 2024, out of which it paid 1000 cedis.

Mr Atta-Bedu wonders why the PPA did not flag the company when it did not pay taxes for two years and was only resurrected for the Airports company contract in 2024.

Evatex to get 15 percent revenue from airport deal

According to the contract, Evatex is entitled to 15% of the revenues it uncovers in the revenue assurance every month. This arrangement appears reasonable until one encounters the details. In the Evatex technical proposal, which the GACL accepted, the 15% is to be charged on any additional revenue beyond the benchmark value.

Evatex calculated the benchmark value by taking the 2022 monthly average revenue from cargo, which was $781,000. GACL’s, however, records show that in 2021, three years before the Evatex contract, the average monthly revenue from cargo handling was $909,000, which exceeded the Evatex benchmark value by $128,000.

This means Evatex, which did not respond to our request for comment, could be sharing revenue from cargo at the airport even without doing any work. This is because, without any intervention, some months would record more traffic, and revenue could soar above the 2022 benchmark value.

The GACL claims the contract to Evatex was preempted by its internal audit report that raised the possibility of under-declaration of revenue by the companies handling cargo at the airport. According to that report, the GACL had failed to connect its systems to those of the companies handling the cargo at the airport. GACL’s audit report highlighted this on page 2 of the report:

“GACL, however, needs to improve on its monitoring processes by installing accounting systems in which all relevant data will be recorded and transmitted via computer link-up to that of the operators as stipulated in Clause 5.3.4 in the ground handling and cargo warehouse agreement.”

Instead of installing the accounting system as stipulated in its contract, the GACL chose to award another contract to SML’s sister company, Evatex, which had only one worker and had no record of undertaking the service anywhere. This mirrors how Evatex’s parent company, SML, also won the revenue assurance contract in the downstream petroleum sector in 2019.

At the time of filing this report, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), had “interviewed and formally charged the former Board Chairman of the Ghana Airports Company Limited, Paul Adom-Otchere and two others. However, Mr Adom-Otchere has so far been unable to meet his bail conditions.”

In a statement released on July 31, 2025, the OSP added, “The two other persons are Otchere Kwame Baffour Awuah- Group Executive, Commercial Services, GACL and Albert Adjetey Adjei-Laryea – CEO of Devnest Systems.”

We also sighted a letter signed by GACL notifying Evatex of the termination of its contract. Dated July 28, this letter was written more than a month after we notified the GACL of our investigation, an apparent admission of the numerous violations associated with this contract.

Our sources say the Managing Director of the GACL, Yvonne Nana Afriyie Opare, will meet the OSP on Monday, Aug 4.

Regarding the SML scandal, OSP had also arrested several public and private officials implicated in the scandal. Former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has also been declared wanted.

In the heat of the 2024 presidential election, candidate John Mahama of the opposition NDC served notice that his government would discontinue the SML contract.

“An NDC government under me (John Mahama) will not recognise or accept this SML agreement,” he said in a speech in Koforidua at the start of a tour of the Eastern Region.

However, seven months into John Mahama’s presidency, the part of the SML contract is still running, and Ghanaians are still waiting for action as he promised during the electioneering campaign.

Background: The SML Scandal

In December 2023, our investigation revealed that SML, a company registered a month into the Akufo-Addo administration, was handpicked for multiple government contracts under very murky circumstances. The company was awarded contracts by the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to perform the following so-called revenue assurance services:

1. Transaction audit at the ports 2. External price verification at the ports 3. Downstream petroleum products measurement audit 4. Upstream petroleum audit 5. Revenue assurance in the mining sector

These contracts were awarded under the single-source procurement method, even after the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) denied approval for the use of the method on the basis that the newly formed SML lacked the capacity to perform these services.

After paying hundreds of millions to SML, a KPMG audit later revealed that the transaction audit and external price verification services were already being performed by the GRA. Those contracts were terminated after our investigation and the subsequent KPMG report ordered by the president. Our investigation, which occasioned the KPMG audit, also revealed that the downstream petroleum sector contract to SML was needless.

Because SML had nothing to show for its work in the downstream sector, the company resorted to false claims about its services and impact.

Our investigation revealed that a company called Rock Africa had been contracted by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to curb the diversion of petroleum products.

Another company, Nationwide Technologies Limited, was engaged to undertake fuel marking to curb dilution and detect smuggled petroleum products into the country.

To tackle possible under-declaration and other anomalies, the NPA and GRA deployed the Enterprise Relational Database Management System (ERDMS), which is also used to block non-compliant oil marketing companies from trading. The ERDMS is linked to the GRA’s revenue management system, ICUMS, to track and tax volumes of petroleum products lifted.

“Once we are able to track whatever is happening on the ERDMS to ICUMS [Integrated Customs Management System], by and large, you would have tracked all your volumes. And once you are able to track your volumes, you are likely to get your taxes right,” said Samson Anim, the head of GRA’s downstream petroleum sector.

When we confronted SML about its false claims of checking under-declaration, diversion and dilution, its managing director, Christian Tetteh Sottie, admitted that the company was not performing any of those services. SML deleted the false claims from the company’s website. A director of the company, Yaa Serwaa Sarpong, later said the services SML claimed to have performed with results were mere advertisements.

“A website is a place where companies advertise what they can do,” she said. “They tell potential clients this is what we do. It is not a scope of work of the contract.”

When the host, Samson Lardi-Anyenini, asked if they were speaking in “general terms,” Ms. Sarpong responded, “Yes”.

“SML Ghana is essentially a plugin into the revenue stream of the state, taking money for no job done, because what they are supposed to be doing is already being done. It’s just people finding ways to hive off some of our revenues into private pockets, and the reasonable thing to do is to cancel that contract,” Benjamin Boakye of ACEP said of the contract.

SML also claimed that in its first two years of operation, it had saved Ghana about 3 billion cedis. When we confronted the managing director with evidence, he claimed the media, including the state-owned Daily Graphic, misreported SML.

SML says it measures volumes of petroleum products that leave the depots. The company’s officials admitted during our investigation that their measurements are not as accurate as those of the metres that existed, the contact metres, before SML was contracted.

“The contact metres are always the best,” Hamdan Abubakar, SML’s head of engineering, explained the SML metres are not as accurate as the ones at the loading gantries.

He said metres that predate the SML contract are more accurate because they get the actual amount of fuel that flows through the pipelines and is loaded.

The SML metres, he said, “are external and use sound technology to take measurements.” Because the SML metres are not as accurate as the existing ones, the GRA and NPA do not use measurements from SML’s metres for revenue purposes.

Even without systems such as the ERDMS, which were already in place before SML was engaged, GRA officials said losses in the value chain where SML operates are almost impossible.

A Senior Revenue Officer (SRO) of the GRA at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Collection, Naomi Chartey, said it was impossible to steal fuel products due to measures that had been put in place by the NPA and the GRA.

“The product is owned by the BDC (Bulk Distribution Companies), so the BDC must be known. Customs must be known, and for most of the depots, access to the depots is controlled by us. We have national security at the depots. We have NPA reps at the depots. So, by the time you are done [compromising all the players to dupe the system], you will realise that exercise is not even lucrative. Even when there are no systems, it is virtually impossible, and we haven’t had such a case ever since,” Ms Chartey said.

Despite the false claims about its operation and impact, which SML could not defend, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, unilaterally instructed in 2023 that SML’s monitoring services be expanded to the upstream oil production and gold mining sectors in Ghana. The expanded contract initiated by Ken Ofori-Atta entitled SML to more than 100 million dollars every year for five years, subject to another five-year renewal.

The Minerals Commission and the Petroleum Commission, which are regulators of the mining and upstream petroleum sectors, said the Finance Minister did not consult them before awarding the SML contracts. According to experts, the petroleum production and mining sectors already have adequate monitoring mechanisms by the state, so SML’s contract was not needed.

Formerly called PMMC, the chief executive of Ghana Gold Board, the institution authorised to test gold and other minerals, also says SML’s services are not necessary in the sector.

“Customs officials from GRA are in the gold room, Goldbod officials are there, and the Chamber of Mines is represented, so there are enough checks and balances…The system is not broken. The system is working,” Sammy Gyamfi, the CEO of the Ghana Gold Board, explained the robust measures in place to tackle possible revenue leakages in the gold sector. He said the SML contract was needless and wasteful.

The Ministry of Finance, which directed the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to sign revenue assurance contracts with Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) Ghana, has said that it does not have any information on revenue losses in the mining, petroleum downstream, and upstream sectors.

“We do not have direct information on purported reports from agencies in the petroleum and mining sectors about losses in the downstream, upstream and mining sectors,” the ministry said in a written response to our right to information request.

When we published our investigation into SML in 2023, the Parliament of Ghana passed a resolution suspending payments to the company and ordered an investigation, but before parliament commenced its investigation, however, President Akufo-Addo ordered KPMG to audit the SML contract.

The KPMG audit revealed that the contracts awarded to SML had breached multiple laws, including the PPA Act and the Public Financial Management Act, and lacked parliamentary approval for the multi-year contracts.

The upstream and mining sector contracts to SML were suspended, while the downstream contract resumed in June 2024, despite findings that showed that SML’s operations did not add any value to the revenue or volumes of petroleum products. GRA and SML had falsely claimed that volumes of petroleum products only increased to 400 million litres per month after SML began its operations in June 2020. But the KPMG’s audit found that:

1. An average of 400 million litres per month was already being recorded in Ghana in 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, as per our review of the NPA data.

2. NPA and GRA recorded a significant decrease in lifting volumes in April 2020, i.e., 336 million litres and 311 million litres respectively, as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown spanning the period 1 to 20 April 2020.

3. Volumes recorded after April 2020 were constantly above 400 million litres.

4. In the latter half of 2020, when SML commenced operations, data comparison from three sources indicates that NPA reported higher annual volumes than both GRA and SML. Following NPA, GRA reported the next highest annual volumes, with SML recording the lowest annual volumes.

The KPMG audit also showed that SML was not responsible for the revenue increase in the downstream petroleum sector. KPMG named the following as responsible for revenue growth:

1. An incremental growth of revenue was observed from 2015 to 2023, except for a decline observed solely in 2017.

2. One significant contributor to this growth was the increase in the number of taxes over the years, i.e., from two taxes in 2015 to five taxes in 2023.

3. Another significant contributor to this growth is the increase in tax rates in 2016, 2019 and 2021. However, there was a decrease in tax rates in 2017, coinciding with a revenue reduction from 2016 to 2017.

4. For any petroleum product lifted to be taxable, it must be declared in ICUMS. GRA’s records of petroleum volumes lifted (taxable and non-taxable) are transmitted from NPA’s ERDMS systems into ICUMS. SML’s flow meters’ readings are used for assurance purposes only.

In the heat of the 2024 presidential election, candidate John Mahama of the opposition NDC served notice that his government would discontinue the SML contract.

“An NDC government under me (John Mahama) will not recognise or accept this SML agreement,” he said in a speech in Koforidua at the start of a tour of the Eastern Region.

“Parliament is investigating it. The president has hurriedly gone to get KPMG to come and audit it. Whatever audit they do, I say we won’t accept or respect any agreement with SML. And for the money that they have taken already, we will hold them to account for that money,” he added.

Three days before candidate John Mahama won the 2024 election, SML, under the shadows of Evatex, got another shady contract at the Ghana Airports Company.