Report that SML was Paid ₵1.4B is Misleading- Kow Essuman

Kow Essuman, a legal counsel to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has argued that just one billion cedis was paid by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to the Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) in their revenue assurance contract, calling contradictory reports as misleading.

The President, ahead of his decision to publish the full audit report on the contract released a summarized statement of the report which said GHc1 billion was paid to the company.

However, upon the publication of the report, it was found that a gross amount of GH₵1.4 billion was made in the transaction with many media outlets reporting same.

In a social media post the lawyer insisted the transaction is worth GHc1,061,054,778.00, referencing portions of the report.

“Upon careful review, one will notice that the KPMG report does not state that SML received GHS 1.4 billion. On page 31, the report lists a gross amount of GHS 1.4 billion, but it also specifies the net amount paid to SML as GHS 1,061,054,778.00. A note at the bottom of page 31 explicitly clarifies that the net amount is ‘net of taxes’.

“Therefore, the conclusion that SML was paid GHS 1.4 billion is incorrect because no business is ever paid the gross amount. The accurate figure actually paid to SML is GHS 1,061,054,778.00.”

He said this is corroborated on page 160 of the KPMG report.

“This section includes a table with a column titled “Actual Payment made.” The table details that the actual payments made to SML were GHS 340,362,808.32 for Transaction Audit and External Price Verification services and GHS 720,691,969.68 for Downstream Petroleum services, totaling GHS 1,061,054,778.00. This total excludes the taxes deducted and confirms the accuracy of the Presidency’s statement. It is thus misleading for anyone to conclude that the Presidency stated a wrong figure as the payment made to SML.”