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By: Edward Graham Sebbie
Office of the Special Prosecutor, OSP, has arrested Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, former Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Isaac Crentsil, ex-Commissioner of Customs and now General Manager of SML, and Christian Tetteh Sottie, former Technical Advisor and now MD cum CEO of SML.
The arrests were connection with the ongoing investigations into suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in respect of contracts between the GRA and SML for revenue assurance services. The investigations also seek to verify SML’s claims that its services have been saving the nation significant revenue losses.
Owusu-Amoah, Crentsil and Sottie, were detained last night for to failure to meet bail conditions.
Investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, in 2023, broke out the suspected stinky GRA-SML contracts regarding revenue assurance services attracting the attention of the public, anti-corruption campaigners and CSO’s who have called for the cancellation of the contract.
The then president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, subsequently directed the contract to be abrogated. However, six months into the Mahama-led administration, it has been established that only upstream component of the contracts was cancelled leaving the downstream for which SML continues to receive some 1.4 million dollars each month for a duplicate work NPA has been performing.
It would be recalled that NIB officials two weeks ago raided the offices of SML, in Tema, also in respect of the ongoing probe into the issue. Their raid was necessitated by earlier call on the NDC government to cancel the remaining contract, thoroughly investigate the contracts and retrieve any monies lost to the state, by the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana, at a presser in Accra.
