STOP GIVING SML A BAD NAME….
They Have Committed No Wrong!
By: Sir-Obama Pokuase
There have been varied opinions following the government’s White Paper on the raging SML/GRA/MoF quality assurance contract in Ghana’s petroleum downstream sector.
While the KPMG Report fundamentally absolves SML from alleged malfeasance by The Fourth Estate, there have been well-coordinated attempts by some CSOs, journalists and politicians to smear this wholly-owned Ghanaian company for parochial reasons.
These self-serving individuals cannot come to terms why a Ghanaian company will walk away squeaky clean from KPMG’s audit findings, and continue to render their novel services in the petroleum downstream sector.
Dazed by this development, these guys have now abandoned their initial unsubstantiated claims, and are now on a hunting expedition — going Heaven and Earth to major the minors. What they however forget is the legal principle of “De minimis non curat lex”(the law does not take account of trifling matters, or matters of little or no value or importance).
Background
Like Sammy Gyamfi and his NDC, the CSOs, The Fourth Estate and Manasseh Azure Awuni, had in their earlier documentary alleged emphatically that;
1. SML had been awarded a 10-year contract by GRA — which has turned out to be false.
2. That USD$100 million had been paid by GRA/MoF to SML — which has also turned out to be false.
3. That the 2023 revenue assurance contract between SML and GRA did not have PPA approval — which is also false.
These three (3) allegations formed the basis upon which they questioned the propriety of the revenue assurance contract. Meanwhile, anybody who has had the benefit of reading the findings and recommendations of the KPMG Report vis-a-vis the government’s white paper would appreciate the propriety of the contract.
It is needless to state that since 2020, SML has saved Ghana millions of cedis in revenue generation — which the GRA was losing to leakages and under declarations by the BDCs and OMCs in the downstream sector.
Prior to SML’s engagement, the taxable volumes of petroleum products recorded per month hovered around 200 million litres. A huge chunk was being lost to under declarations by the sector players. However, post SML’s revenue assurance contract, the number of taxable volumes have shot up astronomically to a minimum of 450 million litres per month.
What this means is that, government, through the GRA has raked in some whopping GHs 14,844,293,095 courtesy SML’s diligence. It therefore begs the question why any patriotic citizen seeking to guard against losses/revenue leakages would rather fight SML; if not for their personal interests.
It must also be noted that, contrary to assertions by the CSOs, the 2023 performance-driven contract awarded SML by GRA was, and is in full compliance with the Public Procurement Act (Act 633) as amended.
As l write, there is now a 24/7 electronic real time monitoring of the outflow and inflow of petroleum products at depots where there are installed meters, and this has reduced leakages and under declarations drastically!
How then does any right-thinking person of society, if not for their parochial interest, vilify SML? Let’s hasten slowly to build a better society.
I shall be back with Part 2.
Sir-Obama Pokuase No. 345
Baobab Street
A Concerned Ghanaian
Source: Elvisanokyenews.com
