The Ministry of Finance has denied the Editor-in-Chief of the Fourth Estate, Manasseh Azure Awuni, access to a copy of the Upstream Petroleum Audit Contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) and the Ministry under the Right to Information Act.
A statement signed by the Minister of State, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, on behalf of Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance minister Tuesday, January 09, 2024, says the Ministry’s inability to grant Mr. Awuni the copy is “consistent with section 11 subsections (1) (b) and (c) of the RTI Act.”
“we are unable to grant access to a copy of the Upstream Petroleum Audit Contract
signed in 2023 between this Ministry, Ghana Revenue Authority and the service
provider. Our position is consistent with section 11 subsections (1) (b) and (c) of the RTI Act,” the statement explained.
The statement further indicated that the Ministry lacks direct access to “Reports from Agencies in the Petroleum and Mining sectors about losses in the downstream, upstream and mining sectors”, directing the journalist to contact the necessary institutions for copies.
It continued that the government has put many measures in place to make accessible to the public, issues relating to petroleum upstream and downstream sectors where information can be retrieved, including the budget.
Background
Manasseh’s requests were in connection with a documentary aired in December 2023 concerning a controversial contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML).
Following a year-long investigation by Evans Aziamor-Mensah, Adwoa Adobea-Owusu and Manasseh Azure Awuni of The Fourth Estate, it was discovered that the company (SML), with the help of a section of Ghana’s media, had made false and unsubstantiated claims of its operations that have served as the basis for the payment it received.
The Fourth Estate asserted that, it appears the Ministry of Finance and the GRA were aware the claims were false, for some officials of the GRA said they had confronted the company about its claims of savings and volumes on two separate occasions.
A few hours after the reporters confronted the management of SML with the findings of the investigation and asked for a response, the major services it claimed to render to the government disappeared from the company’s website.
The investigation also uncovered that at a time players in the downstream petroleum sector were questioning the relevance of SML’s involvement, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, initiated a more outrageous deal that would entitle the company to over $100 million every year for the next 10 years.
Find below the full response given by the Finance Ministry to Manasseh on its inability to provide him the information he requested.
Reference is made to your application for information, dated 17th November, 2023, and your request for internal Review dated 28th December, 2023 under the Right to Information Act (2019) Act 989.
2. While it is unfortunate that administrative challenges have unduly delayed our response to your original application, the Ministry of Finance, after a careful examination of the application, wishes to respond as follows:
i.we are unable to grant access to a copy of the Upstream Petroleum Audit Contract
signed in 2023 between this Ministry, Ghana Revenue Authority and the service
provider. Our position is consistent with section 11 subsections (1) (b) and (c) of the RTI Act;
ii. we do not have direct infomation on purported Reports from Agencies in the Petroleum and Mining sectors about losses in the downstream, upstream and mining sectors. You may contact the institutions in the afore-mentioned sectors for any such reports;
iii. the engagements with all service providers in the revenue sector, including SML, are informed and underpinned by Government policies in approved Budgets since 2018. Indeed, in August 2021, Government launched the Revenue Assurance, Compliance and Enforcement (RACE), which amongst others, is focused on identifying and eliminating revenue leakages while reinforcing the culture of compliance, especially in the areas such as petroleum bunkering, gold and minerals export, port operations, transit goods, warehousing, and free zones operations.
The recently developed Ghana National Revenue Policy (GNRP), as announced in the paragraph 94 of the 2023 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review and presented to Parliament in July, 2023, reiterated this policy position.
iv. we do not have any direct information on all the other requests outlined in your application. Kindly contact the Ghana Revenue Authority since they are contractual parties.
