OSP charges Ken Ofori-Atta and seven others in SML scandal

The Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) has charged fugitive former Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta and seven others in the Strategic Mobilization Ghana Limited (SML) scandal. SML is the eighth accused.

The others are Ernest Darko Akore, Emmanuel Kofi Nti Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, Isaac Crentsil and Kwadwo Damoah.

The eight are facing the charges for conspiracy to commit criminal offence of directly or indirectly influencing the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract, contrary to section 23(1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and section 92(2) of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).

According to the particulars of offence, between June and September 2017 – at Accra in the Greater Accra Region of the Republic of Ghana and within the jurisdiction of the Court, they agreed to act together with a common purpose to commit the criminal offence of directly or indirectly influencing the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract for enhanced classification, valuation and risk management in the context of the payment of duties and levies on imported goods to Strategic Mobilisation Enhancement Limited, which was incorporated on February 14, 2017, through the single-source method by wilfully misrepresenting to Public Procurement Authority that Strategic Mobilisation Enhancement Limited had particular interest in providing effective and measurable solutions for the enhancement of government revenue and that it enjoyed financial and technological backing from its investors and that one of its investors COTECNA S.A. ( a multinational company, would provide, implement and maintain a comprehensive information technology platform and further that COTECNA S.A. had given Strategic Mobilisation Enhancement Limited ownership of its proprietary technology.

The OSP is seeking to prove the following in court:

The Accused Persons conspired to set up and did perform acts in furtherance of the conspiracy to set up a criminal enterprise of directly and indirectly influencing the procurement process to obtain unfair advantage for the Eighth Accused Company in the award of procurement contracts for transaction audit services, external price verification services, measurement audit of downstream petroleum products, upstream petroleum audit services, a n d minerals audit services purportedly by the Government of Ghana, acting through the Ministry of Finance and Ghana Revenue Authority.

The criminal enterprise was commenced in 2017 by the First, Third, Seventh, and Eighth Accused Persons, with the other Accused Persons joining the adventure at various times. The criminal enterprise was characterised by no genuine need for contracting the Eighth Accused Company for the obligations it purported to perform, and the contracts were secured for the Eighth Company through self-serving patronage sponsorship, and promotion by the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Accused Persons based on false and unverified claims.

Also, the contracts were attended by the commission of egregious prohibited acts as mandatory statutory prior approvals by Parliament, and the Board of Public Procurement Authority were wantonly disregarded by the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Accused Persons who acted with increased emboldened impunity as they freely abused their public offices by using the offices f o r private benefit.

Further, the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, a n d Sixth Accused Persons ensured that there was no established financial management system of monitoring and verification to assure that the Republic was obtaining the value for the money it was paying to the Eighth Accused Company, and the channels of payments of public funds to the Eighth

Accused Company were set on automatic mode by the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Accused Persons detached from actual performance and based on false and unverified claims in wilful oppressive injury to the public.

The actions of the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Accused Persons created the opportunity for the Eighth Accused Company to largely pretend to perform the services under the various contracts – leading to immense financial loss to the Republic of about One Billion Four Hundred and Thirty-Six Million Two Hundred and Forty-Nine Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-Eight Cedis Fifty-Three Pesewas (GH¢1,436,249,828.53).

And had they not been halted by the actions of three petitioners who lodged a complaintwith the Office of the Special Prosecutor in December 2023 against the criminal enterprise; corruption and corruption-related investigations conducted by the Office of the Special Prosecutor between December 20, 2023 and October 3, 2025; Government intervention of temporarily suspending performance of the purported services in early January 2024; and a directive by the President of t h e Republic on October 31, 2025 for the termination of all the public contracts awarded to the Eighth Accused Company by the Ministry of Finance and Ghana Revenue Authority – the Accused Persons also intended that a further estimated Two Billion Seven Hundred and Ninety-Nine Million Six Hundred and Four Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-Four United States Dollars Seventy-One Cents ($2,799,604,864.71) be paid to the Eighth Accused Company for a period of five(5) years without the mandatory statutory prior authorisation by Parliament.

The Accused Persons based their actions on their false claims that the Eighth Accused Company possessed technical expertise and capability in revenue assurance, and that the technical expertise and capability of the Eighth Accused Person had greatly increased revenue for the Republic; a n d further that the Eighth Accused Company exclusively possessed the only patented and proven technology systems in the world for value chain transaction audits, external price verification, and measurement audit services in the downstream petroleum, upstream petroleum, and minerals sectors.

Based on the above, the Accused Persons have been charged with the offences contained in the charge sheet.

You may download the charge sheet here.

Charge Sheet...

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