Dafeamekpor slams MoF, GRA over $75m per annum contract extension of SML for ‘no work done’

The Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has accused the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) of contracting a company; Strategic Mobilization Limited (SML), for services he claims are practically non-existent, yet the company receives staggering payments exceeding $75 million annually.

According to him, despite his efforts to seek clarification in parliament, the finance ministry has not been cooperative in explaining the specifics of the contract.

He was reacting to a letter from the Ministry of Finance to Strategic Mobilization Limited (SML), concerning plans to expand and review the scope of works rendered by the company to the government.

Dafeamekpor raised these concerns in a post on X on Monday, December 18, 2023, where he criticised the lack of transparency surrounding the agreement between the MoF and GRA.

In the X post, the MP stated “The MoF & GRA have given a contract to an entity called SML who, we are told by industry players, do practically nothing and yet gets paid obscene fees in excess of $75m a year.”

The MP went on to express his frustration with the lack of information provided by the Ministry of Finance regarding the nature of the services rendered by SML.

“Efforts to get the MoF to explain to Parliament exactly what this SML does for the government have proved futile,” the rest of the post stated.

GhanaWeb’s check on the SML's website shows that they are experts in revenue mobilisation solutions.

Their services are in the areas of downstream petroleum auditing, transaction auditing and external price verification.

Below is the letter from the Ministry of Finance to SML of their contract extension

Below is the X post by Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor

The MoF & GRA have given a contract to an entity called SML who, we are told by industry players, do practically nothing and yet gets paid obscene fees in excess of $75m a year. Efforts to get the MoF to come explain to Parl exactly what this SML does for Govt have proved futile pic.twitter.com/KghhyC9RwO

— Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, Esq. MP. (@etsedafeamekpor) December 18, 2023