Investigative journalist Manasseh Azuri Awuni has delivered a devastating analysis of the Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) contract, revealing that the state suffered an outright loss of over GH¢500 million for services that were unnecessary and already operational within the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA)’s customs infrastructure.
Speaking on JoyPrime’s ‘Prime Insight’ on Saturday, November 1, 2025, Mr Awuni presented irrefutable evidence from high-level government documents, including the KPMG audit and the subsequent Presidential White Paper, to back his claim of monumental financial waste.
It follows the recent findings by the Office of the Special Prosecutor about the needless contract and possible prosecutions of officials involved, including former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and former GRA boss, Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah.
Mr Awuni’s core argument centred on the sheer redundancy of the services SML was contracted to perform for the GRA, specifically within the customs sector.
He emphasised that the state paid the astronomical figure for services that, by official acknowledgement, should never have been contracted in the first place.
“If you look at the KPMG report and former President Akufo-Addo’s white paper on the KPMG audit, it said that these services were already configured into the customs systems. So they were not needed, but these services were rendered and we paid over 500 million cedis for these services,” Mr Awuni stated during the interview.
The services in question—External Price Verification and Transaction Audit—were ostensibly intended to ensure accurate declaration and valuation of imported goods to prevent revenue leakage at Ghana’s ports. However, according to Awuni, these functionalities were already built into existing systems like the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS).
Awuni stressed that the finding of redundancy was not merely the opinion of journalists or civil society but was officially confirmed at the highest levels of government and by a reputable external auditor.
“Anybody who cares to know, read President Akufo-Addo’s white paper on the KPMG report. Even before the Special Prosecutor came out, they said the external price verification and the transaction audit which SML claimed to be doing at the Ghana ports were not needed.”
He pointed out that the evidence of redundancy was so overwhelming that corrective action was immediately taken following the audit: “So those contracts were cancelled as soon as the KPMG audit was done.”
The critical question, Awuni highlighted, remains why payments continued to be made for so long despite the services being demonstrably unnecessary. The final financial blow, according to his analysis, is the non-recoverable amount paid to SML for delivering services that were obsolete from the start.
“But we paid over 500 million Ghana cedis for something that KPMG, the presidency, the OSP and anybody who has their sanity intact and knows about these issues agreed: we don’t need it. Outright 500 million Ghana cedis lost.”
The investigation reveals a clear timeline: redundancy established by KPMG and the Presidency’s White Paper, leading to cancellation of the services, but only after the state had already squandered over ¢500 million in payments for non-essential work.
This development intensifies the scrutiny on officials responsible for contracting SML and approving the colossal payments.