President Akufo-Addo has accepted recommendation by auditing company KPMG to terminate the upstream petroleum and minerals audit service provided by Strategic Mobilization Limited (SML) to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
In a five-page press release on Wednesday, April 24, the President said, “The upstream petroleum audit and minerals audit services have not yet been commenced, and no payments have been made in respect of those services; therefore, they may be terminated.
“However, given that the upstream petroleum and minerals audit services could prevent significant revenue leakages, the President has directed that the Ministry and GRA conduct a comprehensive technical needs assessment, value-for-money assessment, and stakeholder engagements before implementing such services.
“The transaction audit and external price verification services may be terminated.”
The President noted, “According to KPMG’s findings, GRA obtained partial value or benefit for those services. This was also due to a lack of monitoring on the part of GRA to ensure that SML performed the services as stipulated in the contracts.
“KPMG’s investigation found that GRA has introduced external price verification tools as part of ICUMS, among its other functions. This renders the reliance on SML for external price verification redundant.”
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Source: Kasapafmonline.com