Investigative journalist at the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and Fellow at Harvard University, Manasseh Azure Awuni, says the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) lied about certain facts in its contract with Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML).

According to him, the available data showed that since the contract between SML and the GRA, there has not been a significant increase in volumes in the downstream sector, yet, the GRA always attributed successes in the downstream sector to the mobilisation entity.

Speaking 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 the documentary revealed that SML did not do anything to increase the volumes in the downstream sector, which implies that they were paid for doing nothing.

The Harvard fellow stressed that although there was enough evidence on the ground, the GRA always attempted to cover it up.

“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.

Also, he said the KPMG report indicated that GRA could not provide digital records of petroleum lifting data from January 2019 to January 2020, so it had to rely on the GRA petroleum lifting data published in ESLA to Parliament.

Mr Awuni asserts that this was because the GRA did not want to be exposed.

“This report clearly shows that SML did not contribute to the growth in the volumes. In fact, SML recorded the least.

"There is absolutely no justification why the Republic of Ghana should have paid a pesewa to this company,” he stressed.