Manasseh Azure calls for further probe and sentence of persons involved in GRA-SML deal

Ghanaian

Manasseh Azure Awuni, the founding Editor of The Fourth Estate, has urged for a thorough investigation into the revenue mobilization deal between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Ltd (SML).

Despite President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's decision to suspend the contract for assessment, Awuni believes it should be outrightly canceled.

President Akufo-Addo

Read full articlecommissioned KPMG to audit the GRA-SML contract on January 2, 2024. Subsequently, the Presidency issued a directive on April 24, emphasizing the need for comprehensive assessments and stakeholder engagements before implementing similar services in the future.

Disagreeing with the President's directive, Awuni expressed his stance during an interview on The Big Issue on Citi TV. He advocated for the cancellation of the contract and further investigations to recover any misappropriated funds.

"I expect this contract to be cancelled and it is not something that should continue because it is not something that is in the interest of the public so what has been recommended for termination and even the existing downstream one, they both have to be cancelled and further investigations conducted for monies to be retrieved because they kept saying they [SML] did partial fulfilment of the contract terms and I don’t think we can pay somebody fully and they will give us partial results," he said.

"Some persons should be made to face the law. The former MASLOC boss [Sedina Tamakloe Attionu] has been jailed and what has sent her to jail is a tiny fraction of what has been wasted in this SML scandal," he added.