Manasseh Azure Awuni’s letter to Paul Adom Otchere.

Dear Paul Adom Otchere,

I have watched your special morning edition of “Good Evening Ghana” in which you named me. Even as my investigation into the contract is yet to be published, I wish to draw your attention to a few issues.

1. You said I had engaged you on this matter, and we had exchanged questions and answers. You also said you had yet to respond to some of the questions I sent you. This is wholly correct. And I’m still waiting for your response to the questions after the several promises and timelines you gave me.
2. In distancing yourself from the contract, you claimed on your show this morning that you didn’t know the owners of the company that won the shady contracts. Paul, this is false. You have admitted to me, not once but TWICE, that you knew the owners of the company from the very beginning. I HAVE EVIDENCE OF THIS. I also have evidence that a year before that company (the one which eventually won the contract) came to the board meeting you chaired at the GACL, you had met those behind the company. So, Paul, it’s a lie if you claim you didn’t know the owners of the company that won the contract.
3. You said the contract does not involve paying money to the company. You said the company would only receive a percentage (15%) from any incremental revenue above the GACL benchmark revenue from the sector during the company’s operation.

This claim is misleading.

Why?

SML has similar arrangements with the government, and they claim they only take a percentage from what they recover or the incremental revenue based on their work. By the end of 2023, we had paid $141 million to SML, but SML could not point to a single recovery they had made. SML could not flag any oil marketing company for wrongdoing. Not even one. But they have been paid. And they are claiming credit for revenue increment from the sector even after our investigation exposed them and the KPMG report corroborated our findings.

As in all the revenue assurance contracts, the companies eventually make millions of cedis from the state, but without any evidence of recoveries in their audits. This has been the case from Subah to SML. So, it’s misleading to suggest that no payment is involved.

These are just preliminary comments based on your release in which I was named. The story itself will reveal why the deal is a scandal and why you, the MD of GACL, and the PPA may need to answer some critical questions.

Thank you for your attention.

Manasseh Azure Awuni.