The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has directed the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Anthony Sarpong, and two senior officials to appear before its investigators as part of ongoing inquiries into the controversial SML Ghana contract.
he directive, sources say, follows the arrest of the GRA’s Acting Head of Legal and is tied to alleged contradictory statements and a letter the three officials are suspected to have instructed the Legal Head to issue to lawyers for SML Ghana.
Those summoned include Mr Sarpong, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Finance, Celestine Annan, and the Technical Assistant to the Commissioner-General, Kenneth Agyei-Duah. This marks the second time Mr Sarpong and Ms. Annan have been invited by the OSP. Their previous testimonies reportedly conflict with the contents of the letter believed to have been authored or approved by them at the request of SML’s lawyers in mid-October.
Both Mr Sarpong and Mr Agyei-Duah previously worked with KPMG, the auditing firm engaged by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to review SML Ghana’s operations.
The summons comes after the OSP confirmed on Monday, November 3, that the GRA’s Acting Head of Legal had been arrested and placed under investigation for suspected corruption, obstruction of justice, and other corruption-related offences linked to the SML deal.
The GRA–SML contract, which engaged SML Ghana to provide revenue assurance services for the petroleum and minerals sectors, has sparked widespread controversy over alleged inflated costs, procurement breaches, and questions about value for money.
Source: Myjoyonline
