The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has concluded that the multi-million cedi contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) was needless, unlawful and of no benefit to the Republic, describing it as a reckless abuse of public funds.
Addressing journalists in Accra on Thursday, October 30, 2025 Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, said the investigation revealed that the SML deal was riddled with statutory breaches, lack of capacity and fraudulent official patronage that caused colossal financial loss to the state.
“The OSP investigation shows that the one June 2018 contract involving GRA, Westblue, and SML, the one January 2019 contract extension between GRA and SML, and the one April 2019 contract for additional services between GRA and SML, were of no real benefit to the Republic, and an unnecessary drain on the public purse.”
SML’s Engagement Unlawful and Unnecessary
Mr. Kissi Agyebeng stated that the OSP’s investigation found that the SML contract was unlawfully imposed on Ghana’s revenue monitoring system despite the company’s total lack of capacity to perform its assigned role.
“The OSP investigation shows that all the troubleshooting displayed during this period was borne 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, 15 months after its inception,” he said.
He revealed that though SML had no system in place to receive Customs Classification and Valuation Reports (CCVRs) and performed no meaningful transaction audits, the company continued to receive steady payments from GRA.
“It is highly worrisome that though SML were doing practically nothing by way of transaction audits and external price verification, GRA kept authorising steady payments to the company,” he noted.
The OSP concluded that the 2018, 2019, and 2021 contracts involving GRA, West Blue and SML were of no real benefit to the Republic and an unnecessary drain on the public purse.
How It All Began
According to the OSP’s report, the scheme began shortly after Ken Ofori-Atta assumed office as Minister of Finance in January 2017.
Barely three weeks later, Strategic Mobilisation Enhancement Limited (SMEL), later renamed SML, was incorporated by a private businessman, Evans Adusei.
A few months after its incorporation, GRA, led by then-Commissioner-General Emmanuel Kofi Nti, sought to sole-source SML for customs-related services despite its lack of experience and capacity.
The Public Procurement Authority (PPA) rejected the request twice, citing the company’s lack of proven track record.
Despite this, the OSP report says a new plan was hatched to unlawfully integrate SML into the GRA’s revenue assurance system through the “official sponsorship and patronage” of powerful public officials.
Mr. Kissi Agyebeng, reading portions of the report, stated that investigations established a “tightly-knit and non-coincidental association” between Mr. Ofori-Atta’s assumption of office, the incorporation of SML and its subsequent award of contracts.
The report described Mr.Ofori-Atta as “the chief promoter, patron and sponsor of the company and the previously unseen power that unlawfully force-fed the company into the revenue assurance drive of the GRA.”
According to the OSP, Mr.Ofori-Atta used his influence as Finance Minister to push for SML’s engagement through a series of “reckless decision-making and flagrant violations of statute,” resulting in huge financial losses to the Republic.
Payments Without Work
Between 2018 and 2024, SML received a total of GH¢1.43 billion from the state, despite doing little to justify such payments.
The OSP found that under contracts signed in June 2018, January 2019, and April 2019, SML failed to deliver any tangible service yet was consistently paid by the GRA.
The company neither submitted the required invoices nor produced the expected audit reports, but payments were made automatically and without verification.
“The unlawful strategic investiture of SML in the public revenue assurance space became a windfall of automatic payments detached from the performance of actual work and without monitoring and verification,” Mr.KissiAgyebeng said.
Dubious Five-Year Contracts
The OSP report further revealed that on October 3, 2019, GRA signed two new contracts with SML, one for the consolidation of transaction audit and external verification services and another for the measurement audit of downstream petroleum products.
Both contracts had five-year terms with options for renewal, but SML once again failed to submit reports or invoices. Despite this, GRA continued to make payments to the company.
The Special Prosecutor described the downstream petroleum contract as “an unnecessary parallel layer”, since similar work was already being performed effectively by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and Customs officials.
He added that SML’s measuring systems were unsuitable for several depots, rendering its services “of no import.”
Ofori-Atta’s Role in the Contracts
The OSP said the multi-year contracts signed with SML triggered the need for prior approval from the Finance Minister and Parliament, as required under the Public Financial Management Act.
However, no such approvals existed, and although Mr.Ofori-Atta did not issue written authorization, his actions and correspondence showed that he “firmly approved of the contracts even if not in writing.”
“If the claim in his defense is that he did not write to approve the contracts and so bears no criminal culpability, then it is the worst form of dereliction of duty. And if the claim is that he was unaware of the execution of those contracts, then it is a debased form of wilful blindness.”
The OSP added that the former finance minister continued to endorse and approve payments to SML from public funds, including the Consolidated Fund and the Petroleum Revenue Account, even after it was clear that the company lacked the tools and capacity to perform.
In one instance, on November 12, 2020 Mr.Ofori-Atta directed the Controller and Accountant-General to release over GH¢65 million to GRA to pay SML for “downstream petroleum audits”, a service which the OSP found had not been delivered.
The OSP also uncovered that the two 2019 contracts were signed by Mr. Emmanuel Kofi Nti on behalf of the GRA two days after his retirement, a move described as “wanton illegality.”
His successor, Rev. AmmishaddaiOwusu-Amoah, later “joined in on the conspiracy” to unlawfully entrench SML in the public revenue assurance system, despite a government directive in April 2020 to discontinue all such services with the rollout of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS).
Financial Loss and Accountability
Mr.KissiAgyebeng described the SML saga as a calculated abuse of public office, in which key officials at the Ministry of Finance and GRA colluded to enrich a private company at the expense of taxpayers.
He stressed that the OSP’s mandate was not just to expose wrongdoing but to ensure accountability.
“The Republic of Ghana must not continue to bleed resources through needless contracts that deliver no value,” he said.
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