Source: Africa Publicity
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has summoned Commissioners of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to appear before its investigators for questioning over the scandalous GRA-Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) revenue contract.
Anthony Sarpong, the Commissioner-General of GRA, the Authority’s Assistant Commissioner in charge of Finance, Celestine Annan, and the Technical Assistant to the Commissioner-General, Kenneth Agye-Duah, were those summoned by the OSP.
The summons come after the arrest of the Acting Head of Legal Affairs at GRA, Freeman Sarbah. He was arrested on Monday, November 3, 2025 for his alleged involvement in corruption and obstruction of justice related to the SML contract.
The Commissioners and the Technical Assistant are said to have been invited because they allegedly instructed the Acting Head of Legal to issue a letter to lawyers for SML at the company’s request during the middle of October 2025.
The OSP in a statement dated Monday, October 3, 2025, said Sarpong is under investigation for suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in addition to obstruction of justice in connection with the SML contract.
Freeman Sarbah arrest comes amidst the OSP’s ongoing probe into the sheer financial scale and legal irregularities surrounding the SML contracts:
Payments:
The OSP’s investigation established that SML received a staggering total of over GH¢1.4 billion from the Republic by December 2024. Crucially, these payments were reportedly made on an automatic mode, detached from actual performance and without effective supervision by the GRA.
Unlawful Contracting: The contracts themselves were deemed irregular and unlawful, as they were initially awarded without the required approval of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) and lacked the necessary parliamentary approval for multi-year contracts.
Statutory Violations: The findings revealed clear violations of multiple statutory provisions, including Section 179C of the Criminal Offences Act (prohibiting using public office for profit) and Section 92(2b) of the Public Procurement Act (forbidding influencing procurement processes to obtain an unfair advantage).
Mr. Sarbah’s arrest is part of a broader crackdown on senior officials connected to the SML scandal.
