Cephas Boyuo, the lawyer representing Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML), has thrown former finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta under the bus, accusing him of being a disservice to the company’s performance-based contract.
According to Cephas Boyuo, SML faced financial challenges due to delayed payments in its early months.
Speaking to journalists in Accra on Friday, November 7, Cephas Boyuo stated, “If there is one person who has been a disservice to SML, it is Ofori-Atta. This contract is a performance-based contract. For 10 months from the inception of SML, they were never paid”.
“Every equipment that SML brought in, Ken Ofori-Atta refused to give SML an exemption. SML paid for it. So please, it is untrue that Ken Ofori-Atta has an interest in SML. SML is independent. It is wholly for Evans Adusei.”
Cephas Boyuo also revealed SML has submitted a detailed response to President John Dramani Mahama regarding his directive to terminate all contracts.
According to Cephas Boyuo, the documents presented to the President and A-G would help them appreciate the matters and form a fair, independent opinion.
He added, “Earlier this afternoon, we delivered a comprehensive response to the President on his directive for the contract between the Ministry of Finance, GRA, and SML to be terminated, which hinged largely on the report of the OSP.
“In the letter submitted to the President and also to the Attorney General, we provided documentary evidence to each and every paragraph and elaborated on the true and accurate picture of the GRA-Ministry of Finance-SML contract,” Boyuo said.
“We are confident that a review of the documents presented to the President and the Attorney-General would help them appreciate the matters and form a fair, independent opinion on the termination directive,” he added.
However, the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, has named former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta as the chief patron, supporter, and promoter of the SML deal.
In a detailed press briefing, Kissi Agyebeng revealed that the SML (Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited), which aimed to provide revenue assurance services in the petroleum, mining, and liquid bulk distribution (LBD) sectors, lacked a legitimate operational requirement.
According to Kissi Agyabeng, both Ofori-Atta and SML management were criminally minded in their operations.
He emphasised that the OSPs’ investigation established that the SML contract was not grounded in any genuine operational need, adding that the payment made to SML was a misuse of public funds.
Kissi Agyabeng, addressing a press conference on Thursday, October 30, revealed that the Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) lacked both the tools and technical competence to execute the audit and revenue assurance services that it was contracted to perform for the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
He highlighted that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) uncovered glaring statutory breaches, conflicts of interest, and unjustified payments.
Speaking to the media, he stated, “There was no genuine need for contracting SML for the work it purported to perform”.
Kissi Agyabeng described the SML agreements as blighted by statutory breaches.
He added that the GRA failed to submit the full agreements between SML and its third-party collaborators, “GRA failed to submit the agreement between SML and other parties, such omissions violated public procurement and governance protocols”.