The Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Ben Boakye, has expressed his concerns over a letter sent to the President of Ghana by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
In the letter, the GRA appealed to the President to allow the running of the Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML-Ghana) system that has been installed to enhance revenue assurance for control purposes.
The President had previously directed the suspension of the GRA/SML contract and appointed an international audit and accounting firm, KPMG, to audit the contract and submit a report within two weeks.
Rev. Dr. Amishaddai Owusu-Amoah, the Commissioner General of the GRA, stated that suspending the operation of the SML system installed would have ramifications and disruptions on operations.
The GRA’s letter claimed that they had reviewed the situation and believed that the system installed to enhance revenue assurance, for control purposes, and also to aid with the ongoing investigation, could be allowed to run with the President’s permission.
However, Ben Boakye stated that the GRA had failed to provide ample evidence to support their request. SML had previously welcomed the suspension and communicated that they were going to wait for the investigation to be over.
The Commissioner General waited for almost that time to elapse and then wrote to the President, essentially telling him that even though he was wrong, they would comply with his wishes but allow them to continue to run the system.
Ben Boakye found this really troubling, as the GRA had not provided any data or justification to tell the President why he was wrong and they were right. This feeds into the broader context of a lack of accountability for how things happen in the country.
Ben Boakye also expressed his disappointment that the GRA had failed to appropriately counter the controversy surrounding the SML contract with facts and figures.
The failure of the Commissioner General to challenge the data that has been put out turns the conversation that the public is driving.
Ben Boakye believes that the GRA and the finance minister could not have had a genuine intention to save Ghana money, and they are still dancing around the issue.
