GRA Rakes In GH¢12b … From SML operations

The Director of Special Support Services of Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML), Yaa Serwaah Sarpong, has explained that the audit and assurance company has helped the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to accrue GH¢12 billion profit from the downstream petroleum sector since 2017.

This, she said, SML did after being able to push and sustain the average taxable volume from 240-250 million litres of petroleum products, when GRA partnered with it, to 450 million litres.

Yaa Sarpong said: “When we (SML) came in the downstream petroleum, the average taxable volume was between 240 and 250, but we have doubled that volume based on the controls we have put in place to audit and assure revenue in the downstream petroleum sector. And this is unprecedented based on the technology SML is using in Ghana.

“So, our performance has been remarkable and unprecedented and GRA has already said this, because we have helped the GRA to double its revenue from downstream petroleum.”

Yaa Serwaah Sarpong addressed a section of the media after her outfit had hosted the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy to familiarise themselves with the operations of the company.

At their control and monitoring room, SML showed their guests, led by Samuel Atta Akyea, the Parliamentary Select Committee chairman, their world-class Electronic Metering Management Systems (EMMS) technology and an innovative system that combines hardware to revolutionise audit practices.

In the EMMS monitoring room, SML can notice any shady deal at any tank farm in the country and the system is what has helped the GRA to double its petroleum revenue from the downstream.

Excited at what he and his team saw and how SML is working to seal revenue leakages at the downstream petroleum sector, Samuel Atta Akyea remarked: “SML must be given a standing ovation for its state-of-the-art installations to track the movement of petroleum products at the various tank farms across the country.”

He said SML has come to expose something very huge, adding “I think they have given the whole nation some rest and the GRA can attest to that. Those who have no clue as to what this company is doing or have no facts as to what happens here should not do propaganda at the least opportunity.”

Lauding SML for their world-class technology, making them pioneers in petroleum audit and assurance in Ghana’s downstream industry, advised the public against running commentaries on issues since they have no idea about it.

He said the company has been a significant partner to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to achieve its revenue mobilisation targets, particularly because their check meters can expose any shady oil lifting at a depot.

“The GRA said this, and we have come to witness how SML is helping the GRA and the state to expose certain things,” the South Abuakwa MP concluded.