By Edzorna Francis Mensah
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), has called on the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government to take immediate steps to retrieve all monies paid to SML Ghana Limited for no work done.
At a press conference addressed by its National Communication Officer in Accra today, the party demanded the immediate publication of the full KPMG investigative report on the SML matter.
The NDC’s demands are hinged on suspicions that there is no more to the report than what has been put out by the Presidency. The party contended that 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, is a confirmation that government is trying to cover up this damning and sleazy SML scheme.
The investigations by KPMG revealed that the agreements between government and SML relative to transaction audit, external price verification and downstream petroleum audit contracts, did not receive various mandatory approvals. This the NDC argues renders 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 cover-ups and the culture of impunity”, since the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government assumed the reins of government seven years ago.
The party has thus outlined four main demands from government, including; the immediate termination of ALL the illegal contracts entered into between SML and the GRA; the retrieval of ALL payments made by 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 comes into government in January 2025. The party promised to hold certain people accountable for breaches of the laws of Ghana, including the Public Procurement Act.