SML Scandal: GRA boss and his family have run out of Ghana with the 'blessing' of Akufo-Addo – Ablakwa alleges

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has alleged that the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Adu Owusu-Amoah, and his entire nuclear family have absconded Ghana over the $100 million Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) corruption scandal.

According to him, the commissioner-general, who signed the $100 million SML contract, left the country hours before President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo called for an investigation into the matter.

The MP, who made these claims in a post shared on X on Wednesday, January 10, 2024, accused President Akufo-Addo of having no intention to get to the bottom of the SML matter because there is no way the GRA boss could have travelled out of the country without his blessings.

“President Akufo-Addo must immediately offer a sincere explanation to Ghanaians on the circumstances under which the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Adu Owusu-Amoah who signed the dubious SML contract, was allowed to travel out of the country with his entire nuclear family less than 24 hours after Akufo-Addo’s 2nd January 2024 press statement announcing that KPMG has been tasked to carry out an urgent audit into the sleazy affair.

“... Interestingly, the runaway GRA boss did not travel with his Service Passport with 2702 as its last four digits. A Service Passport which was issued to him as GRA Commissioner-General on October 3, 2019. This development adds another layer of confirmation that Rev. Dr. Owusu-Amoah has not embarked on an official trip,” he wrote on X.

He added that “the Owusu-Amoahs’ first travel destination when they left Accra a week ago was São Tomé and Príncipe, and continuous tracking appears to paint a picture of a family in no hurry to return to Ghana, that is, if they will ever return.”

Ablakwa also alleged that the commissioner-general has told his close relations that he has no intention of returning to Ghana anytime soon.

He pointed out that the absence of the GRA boss means that the investigation Akufo-Addo called for, which is being conducted by KPMG, would go nowhere.



About the SML scandal:

An investigation piece by an Accra-based media house, The Fouth Estate, titled, 'The GH¢ 3 Billion Lie', accused the Ministry of Finance of awarding a $100 million contract to SML to monitor Upstream Petroleum Production and to Audit the value chain of Minerals and Metals Resources.

Both the GRA and SML came out to justify the agreements that bind the two entities.

SML has stated that its upstream operations have not commenced, and therefore, no revenue has been generated. The company pointed out that the $100 million per year payment allegation is entirely fictional.

Read Ablakwa’s full statement below:

SML SCANDAL— WHY IS THE AKUFO-ADDO/BAWUMIA GOVERNMENT PRETENDING THEY HAVEN’T ASSISTED THE GRA BOSS & HIS FAMILY TO RUN OUT OF THE COUNTRY?

Can the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government stop the despicable deception that they are seriously investigating the SML/GRA scandal.

President Akufo-Addo must immediately offer a sincere explanation to Ghanaians on the circumstances under which the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Adu Owusu-Amoah who signed the dubious SML contract was allowed to travel out of the country with his entire nuclear family less than 24 hours after Akufo-Addo’s 2nd January, 2024 press statement announcing that KPMG has been tasked to carry out an urgent audit into the sleazy affair.

My unimpeachable and irrefutable tracking of Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Adu Owusu-Amoah reveals that on January 3, 2024, he led his family to swiftly and clandestinely leave the jurisdiction.

Exactly a week ago, the entire Owusu-Amoah family departed at 17:10 on TAP Air Portugal, flight TP 1527 from KIA-Terminal 3.

Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Adu Owusu-Amoah used an ordinary Ghanaian passport issued on June 14, 2019, with its last four digits being 5283.

Interestingly, the runaway GRA boss did not travel with his Service Passport with 2702 as its last four digits. A Service Passport which was issued to him as GRA Commissioner-General on October 3, 2019. This development adds another layer of confirmation that Rev. Dr. Owusu-Amoah has not embarked on an official trip.

The Owusu-Amoahs’ first travel destination when they left Accra a week ago was São Tomé and Príncipe, and continuous tracking appears to paint a picture of a family in no hurry to return to Ghana, that is if they will ever return.

In the January 2, 2024 press statement from the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia presidency signed by Mr. Eugene Arhin, Ghanaians were informed that “President Akufo-Addo has tasked KPMG to complete the assignment in two weeks, and submit appropriate recommendations to him.”

The release additionally indicated that the “President has directed the Ministry of Finance and GRA to provide KPMG with whatever assistance they will require for conduct of the audit.”

Now here we are, the GRA boss who is to be audited has been surreptitiously assisted to leave the country.

It is also worth noting that KPMG has only about 6 days left to report to the President.

Clearly, President Akufo-Addo’s much touted investigations into the SML scandal is nothing but a sham.

Painstaking investigations further reveal that Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Adu Owusu-Amoah has told a few very close friends and allies that he will never return to Ghana, particularly after realizing that there’s an elaborate scheme to make him a scapegoat following Manasseh Azure Awuni’s brilliant SML exposé — even though according to Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Adu Owusu-Amoah, he only carried out the wishes of the same notorious looting cabal.

The NDC Caucus in Parliament shall be demanding an urgent inquiry into how Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Adu Owusu-Amoah fled Ghana; we shall seek to identify and sanction the conspirators who facilitated his disgraceful escape despite presidential assurances of an urgent high-stakes KPMG audit; we shall be committed to unraveling the subsequent silence, grand deception and attempted cover-up.

Ghanaians must resolve to do all in our power to vote out this fantastically corrupt Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP regime in this year’s election.

We must uproot this government of endless monumental embarrassments.

We have really had enough!

For God and Country.

Ghana First.

SML SCANDAL— WHY IS THE AKUFO-ADDO/BAWUMIA GOVERNMENT PRETENDING THEY HAVEN’T ASSISTED THE GRA BOSS & HIS FAMILY TO RUN OUT OF THE COUNTRY?

Can the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government stop the despicable deception that they are seriously investigating the SML/GRA scandal.

President… pic.twitter.com/FWGR2ysg0s

— Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa (@S_OkudzetoAblak) January 10, 2024