GRA lied about it’s contract with SML – Manasseh Azure

Manasseh Azure Awuni, an investigative journalist with the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and a Harvard University Fellow, claims that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) lied about crucial aspects in its contract with SML.

According to him, the available data showed that there has been no major rise in volumes in the downstream sector since the contract with SML and the GRA was signed, despite the fact that the GRA has consistently credited downstream sector successes to the mobilisation company.

On JoyNews’ Newsfile on May 25, he said “I agree with Bright (Simons) that the conclusion or the inference from KPMG is problematic but it gives enough facts for us to be able to now know and can say that the GRA and the Office of the President may have lied.”

“I am saying lied and not falsehood because if you have information, you know what is right and your officials confirm on record and you produce something that is different from your own facts to just make this company look good,” he said.

He explained that the KPMG report and video proved that SML did nothing to enhance volumes in the downstream industry, implying that they were compensated for doing nothing.

The Harvard fellow emphasized that, despite the fact that there was ample proof, the GRA consistently attempted to conceal it.

“Page 157 of the report has an average of key findings. An average of 400 million litres per month was already being recorded in Ghana in 2019 and the first quarter of 2020 as per our review of NPA’s data.

“NPA and GRA recorded a significant decrease in lifting volumes in April 2020. That is 336 million and 311 million litres respectively as a result of Covid-19 lock down.

“Spanning the period 1st to 20th April 2020, volumes recorded after April 2020 were constantly above 400 million litres and then the final figure on this page says in the latter half of 2020, when SML commenced operation, data comparison from three sources indicate that NPA reported higher annual volumes than both GRA and SML.

“Following NPA, GRA reported the next highest annual volumes with SML recording the lowest annual volume.

“I am saying this to make a point that the GRA told us that it was only when they brought SML that they started recording over 400 million litres a month and it is the reason they attribute the increase in revenue to SML. But this is what KPMG is saying, that before SML started its operations even in 2019, NPA was already recording up to 400 million litres,” he added.

Furthermore, he stated that the KPMG report suggested that GRA was unable to provide digital records of petroleum lifting data from January 2019 to January 2020, forcing it to rely on GRA petroleum lifting data reported in ESLA to Parliament.

Mr. Awuni claims that this was because the GRA did not want to be exposed , hence the GRA lied about it’s contract with SML.