Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has refuted claims by Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) that its contract with the state was performance-based, describing the company’s earnings as fixed and excessive.
Speaking on JoyNews monitored by MyNewGh, Manasseh explained that SML’s contract allowed it to make money from multiple sectors, including petroleum, gold, and downstream oil production, without any direct link to its actual output.
“It is false that their contract was based on performance. They were paid a fixed amount,” he said. “Take it from me, take it from any SML member who appears on your show, they should show you the contract and where the terms of payments are.”
He revealed that under the price verification contract, SML was “entitled to five pesewas per liter of fuel” sold in the country.
“That five pesewas may seem small until you multiply it by the hundreds of millions and billions of liters we consume in a year,” he stated.
He also disclosed the company’s financial arrangement in other sectors; “Go to the gold mining sector.
SML was entitled under the contract Ken Ofori-Atta masterminded to a fixed percentage that’s 75% of total production of minerals. Go to the downstream petroleum sector. The contract said every barrel of oil Ghana produced should be entitled to $75 per barrel.”
Manasseh argued that the figures were staggering and had no justification in performance or value addition.
“If you are taking money for a needless service and making so much, I don’t see how anybody would want to take tax cuts,” he said.
He added that contrary to claims made by SML that former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta did the company a “disservice,” evidence shows otherwise. “Ken Ofori-Atta was actually pushing for the expansion of the SML contract,” he maintained.
