Some well-meaning voices have reached out to me with reasonable arguments on why I should pause my public commentary on the OSP, especially on the SML case I’m involved in.
The issues I have raised are disagreements I have had with top officials of the OSP for a long time, and I thought that providing these perspectives would put the discussions in context and also hold the office accountable. But the arguments by those who have contacted me make sense, and I don’t intend to continue.
Before I pause, however, let me clarify this issue.
In a rebuttal not related to the issue I raised yesterday, the OSP’s Director for Strategy and Communication, Sammy Darko, said that our petition to the OSP only said SML would be paid only 100 million dollars for the entire duration of the contract, but the OSP uncovered and saved the nation 2.7 billion dollars.
I responded by stating that in our petition and reports that the SML contract was worth over 100 million dollars a year, the reason I have often said that the contract is worth over 500 million dollars.
I have checked the petition we submitted to the OSP again and realised we did not add “a year” when we wrote how much SML will be paid for the contract. I admit and apologise for that error. On that, Sammy Darko was right, and I am wrong. The online SML story and video documentary, based on which we petitioned the OSP, said “$100 million a year,” but the petition mentioned $100 million.
On the claim that the OSP has saved $2.7 billion, however, I stand by my argument that the figure is inaccurate.
From the consolidated contract the GRA and Ministry of Finance signed with SML, everything came to a little over $500 million as the total amount that would have been paid to SML for the five years.
Yesterday, the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, told me the OSP got its figure of $2.7 billion from a Public Procurement Authority (PPA) letter.
Below is the PPA letter that was used for the contract in question, and it does not state $2.7 billion. It references another PPA approval letter that is no longer valid. I’m unsure if that’s where the $2.7 billion is mentioned.
The Special Prosecutor agreed with me that the $2.7 billion is nowhere in the contract that was signed. So, while my team and I used the fees agreed upon by the contracting parties, the Special Prosecutor is using the figure in the said PPA approval letter he said he has sighted. The KPMG report used the figures in the contract and said the total payment to SML over the 5 years would be over 5 billion cedis, which is consistent with our estimates.
Mr. Kissi Agyebeng also conceded that two of his directors, Sammy Darko and the one who led the SML investigation, side with my argument that the fees agreed by the parties in the contract, and not the $2.7 billion in the PPA letter, should be used to calculate the worth of the contract.
Even if the contract sum is $500 million, the OSP cannot take that credit.
The first credit should go to President Akufo-Addo. After our investigation, which unearthed the SML scandal, President Akufo-Addo ordered a KPMG investigation.
After the KPMG report, the Transaction Audit and External Price Verification contracts with SML were terminated.
The Upstream and Mining sectors’ contracts to SML were suspended and never started. These sectors constitute about 80% of the money we would have paid to SML.
And if Akufo-Addo had enough reason to have terminated the entire SML, but he did not. But what he did should be commended.
If he had not acted, Ghana would have lost close to $180 million to SML by the time the OSP finished its report.
By the time the OSP completed its report, the only payment that was being made to SML was the $1.6 million monthly payment for the downstream sector. All the other sectors had already been suspended or cancelled.
President Mahama had said in 2024 that he would cancel the SML contracts, and he carried through that promise in 2025. It is true that the Office of the Presidency letter on the cancellation cited the OSP’s investigation, but I know that long before the OSP finished its report, the Mahama administration had already initiated processes to terminate the SML contract.
They delayed, and some of us continued to pile up pressure.
So, my point is simple: there is no $2.7 billion in the contract. It is not in the PPA letter I’ve shared below.
The fees in the consolidated contract amounted to a little over $500 million.
I have given evidence to back the claim that the OSP unduly delayed in its investigation. By the time the OSP finished its report, the only payment being made to SML was $1.6 million a month.
Every other action on SML—from Akufo-Addo, to the OSP, to President Mahama—was triggered by an investigative journalism piece.
If the OSP wants to take all the credit for what will be saved after its investigation, it might as well take responsibility for what could have been lost had Akufo-Addo not intervened when the OSP delayed and what was still paid to SML even after Akufo-Addo’s intervention.
If the OSP is that it can secure successful prosecution and retrieve monies from SML, we cannot deny the office its lion’s share of that credit.
Until then, the claim that the OSP has saved Ghana $2.7 billion is false and unsubstantiated.
On this note, I’m done with this series.
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