The Editor of Newscenta Newspaper, Elvis Darko, has urged the Government of Ghana and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to extend their probe beyond Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) to cover all revenue assurance contracts awarded by successive administrations.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s Breakfast Daily on Monday, November 3, 2025, Mr. Darko argued that the issues uncovered in the SML case could represent a broader pattern of questionable contracting practices within the country’s revenue collection framework.
According to him, several governments—both past and present—have engaged revenue assurance firms to help plug leakages and improve efficiency in key sectors such as petroleum, energy, and telecommunications. However, he noted that many of these contracts may have been poorly structured or lacked value for money.
“If we think SML is problematic and we truly want to save the state money, then we should not stop there. Every revenue assurance contract, no matter which government signed it, must be reviewed,” he stressed.
Mr. Darko questioned why most of these private firms are compensated from gross revenue already collected by state agencies, describing such arrangements as economically unsound and unfair to taxpayers.
He explained that proper revenue assurance should be performance-based — meaning companies should only be paid from additional revenue generated through their direct intervention, not from funds already collected before their involvement.
“If a state agency is already collecting revenue efficiently, then a new company cannot claim payment from that same pool. Payment should come only from what the company helps the state to recover,” he emphasized.
Mr. Darko further suggested that Parliament and civil society groups take an active role in auditing all revenue assurance deals, to determine whether they deliver real value or simply enrich politically connected entities under the guise of revenue protection.
His comments follow President John Dramani Mahama’s directive on October 31, 2025, to terminate all contracts between the Government of Ghana and SML, after the OSP’s investigations concluded that the company’s operations with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) lacked justification and transparency.
The termination has sparked renewed debate over how governments outsource critical financial oversight functions and whether such private contracts truly benefit the state or merely duplicate existing institutional roles.
