0
0 A former Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, and two other former officials of the GRA are in custody over their roles in the SML Scandal, according to information exclusively available to manassehazure.com
The other two, according to sources at the OSP, are Dr. Isaac Crentsil, a former Commissioner of Customs, and Christian Tetteh Sottie, a former technical advisor to the Commissioner General of the GRA.
The three former GRA officials, two of whom now work for Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML), spent last night in the cells of the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), formerly BNI. They were placed in custody after they failed to meet bail conditions following their questioning and arrest by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
The SML scandal was revealed in an investigative documentary by three former reporters of The Fourth Estate, Evans Aziamor-Mensah, Adwoa Adobea-Owusu, and Manasseh Azure Awuni, after a year’s extensive investigation into the shady operations of SML.
When the journalists confronted the company with evidence, SML could not substantiate the claims it made about the services it provided and the amount of savings it claimed to have made as a result of its operations .
The company had been paid over $141 million by the government by the end of 2023 for its contracts, which have broken several laws, including the PPA Act.
SML, which is an offshoot of a timber company, was formed on Valentine’s Day in 2017, a month after the Akufo-Addo administration took office, and has since enjoyed several sweetheart deals from the GRA and the Ministry of Finance.
The SML scandal is one of the reasons the Special Prosecutor has declared Ken Ofori-Atta wanted over suspected corruption and corruption-related offences. Ken Ofori-Atta masterminded the consolidated SML contract in 2023, which entitled the company to over $100 million a year from the state. That contract was for five years, renewable for another five years.
The three former GRA officials in custody were among those questioned by the OSP yesterday in an ongoing probe into the contracts and operations of SML and the complicity of state officials. They played various roles in the SML contract, and some of them have now crossed carpets from the GRA to SML.
Dr. Isaac Crentsil, who was the GRA’s Commissioner of Customs at the time the GRA signed the contract with SML, is now the General Manager at SML.
He was the GRA’s Commissioner of Customs from 2017 to 2019 and was seconded to the Ministry of Finance as a technical advisor until he retires from the GRA in September 2022. Before becoming the Commissioner of Customers, Dr. Crentsil had headed the Post Clearance Audit Unit of the Customs Division of the GRA from 2015 to 2017.
Christian Tetteh Sottie, who was the technical advisor to the GRA Commissioner General at the time of the SML contract, is now the Managing Director of SML.
Also, a former head of legal at the GRA, Philip Mensah, now works with SML as the company’s legal advisor.
Another former Commissioner of the GRA, Emmanuel Kofi Nti, was also questioned by the OSP, as well as Evans Edusei, the CEO of SML.
It was during Kofi Nti’s tenure as the GRA’s Commissioner General that the SML deal was first cooked. On three separate occasions, Mr. Nti applied to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) for approval to use the single-source procurement method to engage Strategic Mobilisation Enhancement Limited (SMEL) for audit and revenue assurance services for the GRA.
On each of the three occasions, the PPA denied the request, stating that SMEL did not have the capacity or any proven record of ever undertaking that service.
SMEL changed its name to SML, but did nothing about its smell of apparent incapacity, for which reason the PPA denied GRA’s request. The GRA proceeded to award the contracts without PPA approval.
Mr. Kofi Nti, who is reported to have appeared at the OSP looking frail, was succeeded by Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu Amoah.
Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu Amoah was the one who ratified the SML contracts that were signed without regard to the PPA law.
It was during his tenure as Commissioner General that the GRA and Ministry of Finance, on the orders of Ken Ofori-Atta, signed the consolidated contract of 2023 that expanded SML’s operations to cover the mining sector, upstream petroleum sector in addition to the company’s shady operations in the downstream oil production sector and the ports.
Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu Amoah, according to his LinkedIn profile, “has worked previously as the Managing Director and CEO of Bank of Africa in Tanzania.
“He has over 20 years of experience in Banking, having served in various roles. Previously, he served as the Managing Director and CEO for UniBank in Ghana for four years, and also Group Head of Operations for Ecobank Transnational Inc.”
