The Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, has been engaging with the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) as part of the ongoing investigations into the controversial Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) deal.
Mr. Sarpong is said to be providing key insights into an audit conducted by KPMG, his former firm on the operations of SML. He reportedly began assisting the OSP shortly after taking office in March 2025, and has since played a significant role in helping investigators unravel the complexities surrounding the scandal.
Before his appointment as head of the GRA, Mr. Sarpong was a senior partner at KPMG, which President Nana Akufo-Addo commissioned in early 2024 to audit the SML contract following an exposé by journalists from The Fourth Estate. That investigation uncovered serious procurement breaches, weak oversight, and questionable financial practices.
The KPMG report invalidated SML’s claims that its operations had significantly improved petroleum revenue assurance. It showed that, while increases in reported petroleum lifting volumes were recorded after SLM started operations, the level of increase was below the quantum SML claimed it had contributed. Additionally, the report confirmed that SML’s systems were not integrated into the main national revenue monitoring platforms, namely the Electronic Revenue Data Management System (ERDMS) and the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS).
Earlier this week, the OSP arrested and detained three former GRA officials linked to the scandal. These include former Commissioner-General Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, former Commissioner of Customs Isaac Crentsil (now General Manager at SML), and former Technical Advisor to the GRA, Christian Tetteh Sottie, who currently serves as SML’s Managing Director. They were later released on bail.
Other individuals under the radar of the OSP include SML CEO Evans Adusei, former GRA Deputy Commissioner for Legal Services Philip Jude Mensah, and two officials of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) Joseph Kuruk and Faustina Adjorkor who were involved in the denial of GRA’s initial request for single-source procurement approval in the SML deal.
The Fourth Estate had earlier reported that SML had no verifiable background in revenue assurance but was still awarded contracts worth over $100 million annually, giving it a percentage of revenues from petroleum, gold, and upstream oil sectors. The KPMG audit also revealed that payments continued to be made to SML even after a 2024 presidential directive froze disbursements. By the end of 2023, SML had received over $141 million.
SML had publicly claimed that it had helped the country save over GHS 3 billion in revenue leakages. However, the company failed to back these figures with evidence. When pressed, it quietly removed misleading statements from its website and retracted some of its earlier claims. It was also revealed that meters installed by SML were not being used for official tax assessments and were found to be less reliable than those certified by the Ghana Standards Authority.
While parts of SML’s operations, especially in the mining and upstream petroleum sectors, remain suspended, the company resumed downstream activities in mid-2024. This was despite continued public opposition, including strong criticism from then-opposition leader John Dramani Mahama, who called the deal a “fleecing of the state” and vowed to cancel it if elected.
Investigations are ongoing.
