SML saga: I was approached many times by such schemes – Alex Mould

• Dec 19, 2023

Former Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Alexander Mould, has revealed that he was approached on many occasions with scheme aimed at fleecing the country during his time with the NPA and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

According to him, he was approached with proposals similar to the agreement between the government of Ghana and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) but he turned down such proposals.

“While at GNPC and NPA I was approached many times by these revenue extraction schemes.

“I simply refused,” he emphasised.

The statement by Alex Mould comes on the back of revelation that the government is paying as much as US$75 million to SML for doing no work under the guise of revenue assurance in the petroleum and mineral extraction sector.

In a post shared on X on Monday, December 18, 2023, the Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor said that stakeholders in the sector are saying SML is taking $75 million per year for doing nothing.

He added that Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, who issued the contract has refused the invitation of parliament to answer to it.

“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 parliament exactly what this SML does for Govt have proved futile,” he wrote.

The MP shared a document from the Ministry of Finance which stipulates the function of the SML and indicated that its contract should be forwarded to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

1. The Honourable Minister has determined that there is a need to monitor the production and shipment of oil and gold out of the Country.
2. To this end, he would like to expand the scope of the Revenue Assurance work being performed by SML to include upstream oil drilling by the oil production companies and the gold mining companies.
3. The attached revised contract has been reviewed by the Legal Department of the Ministry of Finance. However, because the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) signed the original contract on behalf of the Government, there is a need for GRA to also review and opine on the expanded contract before signing.
4. Kindly forward the new proposed contract to GRA’s Legal Department for their review and input.

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