The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has solidified its case against the contentious Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) contract, with findings suggesting that former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta was personally and centrally involved in pushing the deal despite knowing the company was operationally incompetent.
Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng at a press conference today (Thursday, October 30) revealed that Mr. Ofori-Atta’s pervasive influence and direct knowledge of SML’s shortcomings amount to an alleged complicity in causing financial loss to the state.
The OSP’s investigation concluded that the former minister deliberately ignored clear red flags while conspiratorially approving millions in unwarranted payments from three crucial state accounts.
Minister’s Direct and Persistent Involvement
The OSP’s investigation uncovered a clear pattern of personal intervention by Mr. Ofori-Atta, demonstrating his unwavering commitment to promoting SML’s interests.
“Mr. Ofori-Atta’s participation in personally promoting the course of SML had become pronounced,” the Special Prosecutor noted.
A key piece of evidence cited was a directive issued on 29 August 2019, where the then-Finance Minister instructed his technical advisor, through his chef de cabinet, to spearhead the integration of SML with an existing system, West Blue Consulting, alongside the new leadership of the Customs Technical Services Bureau.
More significantly, the investigation established that Mr. Ofori-Atta was “copied in every email chain,” a fact the OSP deems “highly significant”.
This meant that as the Minister of Finance, “he was placed in direct knowledge of SML’s operational and full incapacity, and that it was hardly performing any service to deserve the payment of fees.”
Conspiratorial Silence and Unlawful Payments
The OSP concluded that the minister’s knowledge of SML’s deficiencies should have immediately triggered intervention to safeguard public funds. Instead, his inaction was interpreted as a deliberate endorsement of a faulty arrangement.
“Had he not been personally benefiting from SML’s unlawfully procured contracts,” Mr. Agyebeng argued, “the open display by SML of lack of capacity, expertise and tools would have immediately triggered his intervention to halt payments to SML and demand accountability.”
The investigation revealed that Mr. Ofori-Atta “looked on conspiratorially in silence while endorsing and approving payments to SML” from three vital public accounts:
- The Consolidated Fund.
- The Petroleum Revenue Account.
- The Tax Refund Account.
These payments were allegedly made with “no technical or operational basis”, diverting significant public revenue into the hands of an incompetent contractor.
The Reality of SML’s Inability to Perform
The OSP’s evidence further detailed the stark reality of SML’s inability to deliver on the contracted revenue assurance services, which include crucial tasks like transaction audits and external price verification.
The investigation demonstrated that the persistent “troubleshooting displayed during this period was born of the unlawful imposition of SML in the space and the still lingering reality of SML’s lack of capacity to carry out transaction audits and external price verification.”
A staggering 15 months after its engagement, SML reportedly “had no system in place to receive ccvrs” (customs control and valuation records) – the vital data required for its work. Furthermore, the incumbent data provider, West Blue, was under “no legal obligation to release the vital data” to SML.
Consequently, the work went undone, yet the company “continued to be paid”, cementing the OSP’s finding of financial loss to the Republic.