Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has disputed former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s claims that he had no role in the controversial Strategic Mobilization Limited (SML) contract, which is currently under investigation by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
Ofori-Atta’s recent public statement sought to distance him from the corruption allegations tied to the SML contract.
“I was not the originating nor implementing Minister in any of these portfolios,” Mr. Ofori-Atta said.
However, Manasseh’s recent social media post challenges this narrative, providing evidence that the former minister played a key role in a deal now engulfed in controversy.
In a Facebook post, Manasseh challenged Ofori-Atta’s assertion that he was neither the “originating nor implementing Minister” in the cases under scrutiny.
To back his claim, Manasseh shared official documents directly linking the former minister to major decisions regarding the SML contract.
One of the documents revealed that the Finance Ministry, under Ofori-Atta’s leadership, determined that the SML contract should be expanded. This contradicts his denial of involvement and raises fresh concerns about his role in approving the deal.
Further deepening the controversy, Manasseh revealed that key regulatory bodies—the Minerals Commission and the Petroleum Commission—were completely unaware of the contract, despite being responsible for overseeing the affected sectors.
According to Manasseh, even the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), which had co-signed the original contract, was only asked to make inputs after the expansion decision had already been made.
Manasseh also raised questions about the legitimacy of the contract’s expansion, noting that his investigation found that SML was not delivering the technological solutions it had advertised. When confronted with this finding, the company admitted to making false claims and quickly removed the misleading information from its website.
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