The Honorary Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has described the contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Ltd (SML) as an Agyapa deal in suit and tie.
According to him, the SML contract is a reincarnation of the controversial Agyapa deal.
Speaking on Accra-based Joy FM’s Newsfile, Mr Simons highlighted that the SML contract’s scope was expanded to include minerals and petroleum, despite significant concerns over its legitimacy and transparency.
“We are completely certain that when you try to expand this SML service to cover the minerals and petroleum it was simply Agyapa [deal] in suit and tie. When Agyapa failed, somebody suggested that if we cannot get the percentage of the royalties that we wanted from every ounce of gold sold in Ghana, then we will do even more, we will add the oil as well and we will create a mechanism to get a certain percentage out of that,” he said on Saturday, April 27.
Simons questioned the logic behind using mechanisms to determine oil production and calculate royalties, particularly given concerns about the accuracy of data provided by oil companies.
“It doesn’t make any sense to try and claim that because the Tullow and other companies are lying about the oil produced, you will use some mechanism to try and establish that.
“And for every barrel of oil produced, you will then be entitled to a percentage. what logic is that?” he quizzed.
