The Fourth Estate’s Manasseh Azure Awuni, in a documentary, claims that the Finance Ministry and the GRA entered into an agreement with an entity called SML.
The agreement, in sum, aims at stopping leakages in the oil sector and bringing in much more revenues to the state, and for its services, some monies are paid to SML.
This agreement, according to Manasseh and his group, is unwholesome and same must be halted, investigated, and if found to have violated any laws of the land, the people behind it being prosecuted.
The President has found it worthwhile to have KPMG delved into it through auditing with stated objectives. Instead of applauding the President for this move, Manasseh and Bright Simons have kicked against KPMG being tasked to audit the whole transaction.
Manasseh, on his part, rejects the KPMG angle, saying the Office of the Special Prosecutor ought to have been given this task.
Bright Simons has asked KPMG to wash its hands from the work as a state entity could be assigned to do it instead. He believes, by inference, that KPMG would not do a better job.
With respect to what Manasseh has said, the President doesn’t necessarily need to charge the OSP to come into this matter. The OSP, if Kissi Agyebeng believes, has an interest in it and same falls under its purview, can launch an investigation into it without the President asking the office to do so.
It is not as though all the cases being investigated by the OSP were given to that entity by the President. Several cases under investigations were initiated by the OSP itself. This, therefore, makes Manasseh’s point moot.
It also begs the question; Does the OSP have the expertise to conduct a forensic audit into this SML matter?
Bright Simons is essentially attacking the integrity of KPMG, this globally acclaimed auditing firm with several years of experience.
If they find the OSP as the Holy Grail for dealing effectively with this SML matter, they can go ahead and petition the office, that’s, if Kissi Agyebeng and his charges have sought the great oblivion of sleep.
The President must be commended rather for not acting like the dead goat of yesterday. This action is commendable and it’ll help bring finality to this SML brouhaha.
P.K. Sarpong,
Whispers from the Corridors of the Thinking Place.
Richard Koomson| mediacentralonline.info |Ghana
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