Five non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have filed a lawsuit against the government, seeking to recover over GH₵1 billion paid to Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML).
The NGOs are questioning the legality of the payment and demanding accountability for the use of public funds.
Earlier this year, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo instructed KPMG to audit the transaction between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and SML. The contract aimed to enhance revenue assurance in sectors including downstream petroleum, upstream petroleum production, and the minerals and metals value chain.
KPMG’s audit uncovered significant irregularities, notably the GRA’s failure to obtain approvals from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) and Parliament before finalizing the contract with SML. These findings have sparked concerns about the contract’s transparency and legality.
In response, the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), Human Rights and Governance Centre, and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) have come together to file a lawsuit against the government. They aim to recover the funds and ensure proper oversight of public contracts.
Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of MFWA, emphasized that the lawsuit is driven by a commitment to protect state resources, not personal motives. “”I think that, if anything at all, we would say that it’s based on some of the findings of the KPMG report that required that actions be taken to ensure that what is due to the state comes back to the state.
“It has nothing to do with being satisfied with the KPMG report. If anything at all, that gave us a little more insight into what we thought were the wrong things that were done in relation to the contract,” he said in an interview with Citi News earlier today.
Braimah added, “We are a country that is supposed to be governed by law, and laws are not made for the beauty of having laws. Laws are made so that things will be done properly. Laws are made so that there will be equity, there will be fairness, there will be justness, and there will be accountability, and in our view, the award of the SML contract and the delivery of the contract had in our view a number of things that are at variance with the laws of our land, particularly and specifically relating to public procurement laws regarding parliamentary oversight and so on.”
“Essentially, we are saying that if these laws were breached, the right things must be done. If we’ve lost money as a result of these breaches, the money must be retrieved and sent back to the state. So essentially, we are saying the laws were not followed, monies have been paid, and those monies must be brought back to the state.”
He reiterated the importance of holding public institutions accountable for their financial dealings.
