Story: News Desk 

The National Democratic Congress (NDC)  is  demanding  an immediate publication of the full KPMG investigative   report  on  Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML)  contract. 

The NDC also wants President Akufo-Addo to take immediate steps to retrieve all monies paid to the SML.

President Akufo-Addo ordered KPMG to audit the contract between the two entities on January 2, 2024.

Following the submission of the audit report, a press statement from the Presidency on April 24 revealed that total fees paid under the contracts from 2018 to the date of suspension amount to over one billion Ghana cedis, a claim SML denied.

Speaking at the Moment of Truth series in Accra on Monday, April 29, 2024  National Communication Officer of the NDC,  Sammy Gyamfi indicated that   their demands were  hinged on suspicions that there was  more to the report than what has been put out by the Presidency.

The party contended  that the government’s decision to allow SML to continue with its activities under contracts which did not receive initial approval from the Public Procurement Authority, the GRA board, and Parliament in line with the Public Financial Management Act was  a confirmation that the government was  trying to cover up this “damning and sleazy SML scheme”.

The investigations by KPMG revealed that the agreements between the government and SML relative to transaction audit, external price verification, and downstream petroleum audit contracts did not receive various mandatory approvals.

This, the NDC argued , made  payments to SML totalling GH¢1,061,054,778 unlawful and illegal.

The NDC decried what it calls “a well-established practice of rampant corruption, sordid coverups and the culture of impunity,” since the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government assumed the reins of government seven years ago.

The party further  demanded  from the government “the immediate termination of ALL the illegal contracts entered into between SML and the GRA, the retrieval of all payments made by the government to SML under the illegal agreements which have occasioned a huge financial loss to the State.

“The immediate publication of the full KPMG investigative report on the dealings between SML and the GRA and; the prosecution of all persons involved in the award of illegal contracts and the illegal payments thereof, to SML.”

The NDC vowed to pursue criminal prosecutions against all persons involved in the SML scandal when it assumed office in January 2025. The party promised to hold certain people accountable for breaches of the laws of Ghana, including the Public Procurement Act.