By Gifty Boateng
As part of it on-going investigations, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), has stormed the offices of the Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML).
The Office is reported to have raided the SML offices with active support from operatives from the National Security and also with a search warrant.
It is unclear when the operation was conducted but The New Republic has gathered that the company’s offices at Tema and Osu in the Greater Accra Region, were affected. The act was conducted at the same time.
While the OSP continues with it investigation, the search became necessary due to it need for electronic information from OSP’s servers.
It comes barely one week after former Minister for Finance Ken Ofori-Atta failed to appear before OSP on Monday June 2 after he was invited to answer questions on some five scandals that occurred during the erstwhile Akufo-Addo.
It was the second time he has called upon to appear.
Featuring prominently in that accusations by the OSP is the contract between SML and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) acting on behalf of government.
It is therefore one of the reasons the former minister has been declared wanted and he is being searched for by the INTERPOL across the world.
The controversial contract hit the news headlines few years ago after an expose by the Fourth Estate, and Ofori-Atta and the Ministry of Finance, were alleged to have played a signficant role in the contract.
As of December 2023, the government had paid more than $141 million to SML through its contracts.
In 2023, Ofori-Atta, directed that the scope of SML’s contract be expanded to cover the mining sectors and upstream petroleum sectors.
The contract, worth more than $100 million a year, was for an initial period of five years, subject to another five years’ renewal. It is worth more than $500 million for the first five years.
The contract stipulates that, SML is entitled to a percentage of revenue from every litre of petroleum product one buys in Ghana.
The company is also entitled to a fixed percentage of revenue from every barrel of oil produced in Ghana and a fixed percentage of revenue from every ounce of gold mined in Ghana.
It is, therefore, false the claim by SML and its defenders that the company is paid based on the recoveries it helps the government to make. The company has not made any recoveries since its operations.