Politics and Elections

‘The GHC3 billion Lie’: Akufo-Addo must be commended for acting quickly – NPP MP

Amidu Issahaku Chinnia, Deputy Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources and MP for Sissala East, has said Ghanaians should applaud President Nana Akufo-Addo for responding quickly to the Fourth Estate’s ‘The GHC3 billion Lie’ documentary, which revealed irregularities in the contract between GRA and SML.

He said that, notwithstanding some procedural flaws in the contract, it was in the state’s best interests in terms of revenue mobilisation.

Mr Chinnia, speaking on TV3’s The Key Points program on Saturday, defended KPMG’s reluctance to include Mr Manesseh Azure in its investigations.

“When you look at reports that came up it was established that the need for an entity to monitor the system was a necessity but the contracting procedure of course, has some challenges when you look at excerpts of the report that we have.”

“I feel that we must commend the President for taking Manasseh’s report and acting on it, he said, adding that “all what Manasseh wanted to expose about the deal was contained in his expose.”

The GHC3 billion Lie documentary

According to him, the documentary itself was sufficient evidence for the accounting and auditing company KPMG to depend on, stating that the content of the documentary “is just like talking to him [Manasseh]”.

He added, “it is not the case that his opinions and recommendations were not taken into account because the basis for this whole investigation emanated from his investigations.”

“And so certainly the President acted on the basis of Manesseh’s investigations that revealed certain things that were untoward towards the state in this deal. We should commend the President because when this matter came up he actually stopped the agreement,” he stated.

President Akufo-Addo commissioned the accounting and auditing firm to audit the deal in January of this year, following the release of the Fourth Estate’s documentary titled ‘The GHC3 billion lie’ in December 2023. The documentary exposed some flaws in the agreement between GRA and SML.

KPMG delivered its full report to the President on March 27, which was eventually made public by the presidency on Wednesday, May 22, following repeated requests from anti-corruption civil society organisations.

According to audit results, SML received a total of GH¢1,061,054,778.00 from 2018 to date [January 2, 2024], while partially completing its responsibilities.

More information from the report has uncovered serious inconsistencies in a multi-year contract deal between the state body and SML in the GHC3 billion Lie documentary.