Auditor General, OSP should audit GRA/SML contract, not KPMG – Domelevo
Former Auditor General Daniel Domelevo says President Akufo-Addo should have utilised existing state institutions to audit the contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML).
According to Mr Domelevo, this would have saved the public purse rather than delegating the task to a private institution to undertake such an important audit.
Additionally, he added that most private institutions do not also apply the laws of the public service when conducting such audits.
Contributing to discussions on the issue, Mr Demelevo stated that the audit service was established for such matters, while the Office of the Special Prosecutor also exists for corruption and corruption-related issues.
He strongly believes that President Akufo-Addo erred in bypassing such state institutions to invite KPMG to probe the controversial contract.
He questioned why state institutions have been established by law, yet they are prevented from carrying out their mandates.
“If the President is interested in an audit to be done, Article 187(8) mandates the President, on advice from the Council of State, to request the auditor general to do such an audit.
“Again, the issue has already been reported to the OSP, so he sits with the case. I don’t know why we will not allow the OSP to do the audit instead of engaging KPMG to do what state institutions are mandated to do.
“I have also heard that parliament has requested or authorised the finance committee to do this audit. Let me say that as much as we are worried about corruption, we must also be worried about the waste of public resources. These are all waste of public resources.
“We have institutions given this mandate to protect the public purse. We should use them instead of engaging KPMG,” he said.
He was reacting to a January 2 release in which President Nana Akufo-Addo asked KPMG to conduct a two-week audit of the contract.
Background
The President’s directive comes after an investigation by The Fourth Estate revealed that SML had been awarded contracts that entitle the company to more than $100 million yearly.
The company admitted it was not performing the advertised services that claimed to tackle under-reporting, diversion and dilution when confronted with evidence. It has since deleted those claims from its website.
The Managing Director of SML, Christian Tetteh Sottie, also admitted that the company’s claim that its services had saved Ghana GHS3 billion was false.
The directive reflects a commitment to ensuring transparency and accountability in executing the GRA’s contractual agreement with SML.