The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has defended its partnership with Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) following a publication questioning the contract and SML’s claims of saving the government billions.
The Fourth Estate in a publication indicated that the Minister of Finance had awarded a “questionable” contract to SML to monitor Upstream Petroleum Production and to Audit the value chain of Minerals and Metals Resources.
It said its investigations have disproved wild claims by SML Company that it had helped to save Ghana billions of cedis that would have been lost in the downstream petroleum sector but for its intervention.
Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) is a wholly owned Ghanaian company with a strong financial backing of investors with varied business interests in Ghana across different industries.
In a statement issued by the GRA on Wednesday, it said “The work of SML over the period has led to a significant increase in the figures reported in the downstream petroleum sector, from an average of 350 million litres per month in 2018 and 2019, to 450 million litres per month from 2020/2021. This represents over a thirty- three per cent (33%) increase in volume reporting and an average of an extra 100 million litres per month at a levy rate of GHS1.44p.
“The extra revenue variance gained for the two (2) years will exceed GHS3 billion. This performance is attributable mainly to the introduction of ICUMS and SML systems,” it stated.
