Ibrahim Adjei, former Assistant Secretary at the Office of the President, under former President Nana Akufo-Addo, has commended President Mahama for terminating the controversial Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) contract, arguing that it was an “unnecessary intervention”.
President John Dramani Mahama has directed the immediate termination of all contracts between the Government of Ghana and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) following the conclusion of an investigation by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
Mr Adjei argued that, looking at the evidence that was presented and the mandates of SML, the deal wasn’t important as the GRA was already performing such duties
“It is a good move. Given the facts that were presented to us, the deal was unnecessary because you have agencies within the Ghana Revenue Authority who do this work in terms of making sure that there is a lack of leakages in revenue mobilisation on the GRA side, and when you come to the upstream and downstream, they were mandated to do so. When you look at the evidence, it was an unnecessary intervention,” he said
He added that the rejection of the SML deal by the PPA based on its longevity and capacity to deliver showed that the deal was not needed.
“If the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) rejects you three times for single source finding on what basis, the company was four months old, they have not shown any historical capacity, technical know-how and more importantly, their capacity to deliver on what it says, the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) said no”, he added.
The directive to terminate the contract was contained in a letter signed by the Secretary to the President, Dr Callistus Mahama, and addressed to the Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson. The letter instructed the Finance Minister to take immediate steps to end all existing agreements involving SML.
The OSP at a press briefing on Thursday, October 30, disclosed that it has concluded its investigation into the revenue assurance contracts between SML and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), which examined issues related to alleged procurement irregularities, contractual overreach, and value for money concerns.
