The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) raided the offices of the Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) on Tuesday, June 10, 2025.

The OSP’s raid was reportedly conducted with the support of the National Security Secretariat at the SML offices in Osu and Tema concurrently.

The report further indicated that the raid was carried out with search warrants and was conducted in relation to the OSP’s investigation into the SML scandal.

Amid the raid and subsequent detention of the three directors of SML, a video of President John Dramani Mahama speaking on SML at one of his campaign rallies, during his time in opposition, has resurfaced.

In the video, President Mahama is seen promising the gathering that his government will not accept or recognise the SML agreement in his next administration.

According to him, a future National Democratic Congress (NDC) government would hold the company accountable for the deals and contracts awarded to them by the then-New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

“An NDC government under me will not accept or recognise this SML agreement. Parliament is investigating it. The president has hurriedly gone to get KPMG to come and audit it. Whatever audit they do, I say, we won't accept or respect any agreement with SML. As for the money that they've taken already, we will hold them to account for that money,” he said.

President Mahama also addressed the frequency and severity of scandals under the NPP government, stating that the gravity of the corruption scandals has numbed the citizenry, as they seem to have become all too familiar with such cases.

“One would have thought that the corruption cases were enough, but it has even made Ghanaians numb. Now, Ghanaians are not surprised again. Corruption does not shock Ghanaians the way it used to shock us.

“Today, when there's a scandal, people are like (sic) they are all tired. Everybody is tired. So, even in the twilight, when you're about to exit office, you're still coming up with schemes to steal Ghanaians’ money but, I say that this won't happen,” he added.

Background

The SML scandal is one of the investigations in which former Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has been declared a suspect and a wanted fugitive.

The OSP has indicated that it is examining agreements between Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) concerning petroleum and mineral revenue oversight.

Under the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government, SML was engaged by the GRA to provide real-time monitoring and audit services aimed at enhancing tax compliance and revenue assurance in the downstream petroleum sector.

In 2023, the scope of the contract was significantly expanded to include upstream petroleum activities and the mining sector, triggering heightened public scrutiny.

The government under former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo eventually suspended the contract in 2024, following an audit by KPMG.

An amount of GH¢1.06 billion had already been paid to SML by the time the contract was suspended.

If allowed to proceed, the total cost to the state was projected to reach GH¢5.17 billion over five years.

In the wake of all these happenings, Civil Society Organisations have mounted a strong response to the findings, with a coalition of five Non-Governmental Organisations filing a lawsuit against the previous government, seeking to recover GH¢1 billion already paid to SML.

Watch the video below:



MAG/VPO