Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has shared a portion of the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s (OSP) report on the Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) case, which outlines a detailed timeline and allegations surrounding former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s tenure.
According to the extract from Page 8 of the report, “On 27 January 2017, Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta assumed office as the Minister of Finance of Ghana. He would serve in this position till 14 February 2024.”
The report further notes that “barely three weeks after Mr. Ofori-Atta’s assumption of office, SMEL was incorporated on 14 February 2017 by a timber merchant, Evans Adusei, with the company’s stated principal activities as general trading and services and import and export of general goods.”
It continues, “A little over four months after its incorporation, the Commissioner-General of GRA, Emmanuel Kofi Nti presented SMEL (a company he had barely heard of), to PPA seeking approval to sole-source SMEL as a service provider for enhanced classification, valuation, and risk management platform in the customs set-up.”
The report describes these events—the assumption of office by Ofori-Atta, the incorporation of SMEL, and the sole-sourcing request—as “tightly-knit and non-coincidental.” It alleges they were part of “a masterful and mischievously crafted scheme designed by Mr. Ofori-Atta, immediately upon assumption of office and throughout his tenure, as the chief promoter, patron, and sponsor of the company.”
It further accuses the former minister of “unlawfully force-feeding the company into the revenue assurance drive of GRA through a series of reckless decision-making and management and flagrant violation of statute through the use of public office for profit.”
The report cites potential violations of section 179C of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), and section 92(2)(b) of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663), suggesting that Ofori-Atta, “with the pliant and avaricious unquestioning compliance of two successive GRA Commissioner-Generals, who he kept at his slavish subservience,” caused colossal financial loss to the state.
