Operatives from the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and National Security have allegedly raided the Osu and Tema offices of Strategic Mobilization Ghana Limited (SML) on Monday, June 9, 2025.
The raids, according to the management of SML, have escalated a bitter dispute over revenue collection in the nation’s petroleum sector that industry sources claimed was being orchestrated by entrenched oil cartels.
A statement issued in Accra by SML said the raids, ostensibly conducted under SML’s contract with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), come amid mounting allegations that powerful players in the petroleum industry and oil cartels are driving a sustained campaign to dismantle oversight systems that have cost them billions in previously unreported revenue.
It said during the raid, the operatives dismantled the real-time monitoring system including monitors, servers, computers and other critical tech components and arrested three innocent employees.
“They destroyed the entire monitoring system, which will significantly impact the operations of the Customs Division of the GRA with millions expected to be lost daily,” Dr. Yaa Serwaa Sarpong, Director of Support Services at SML, said.
She said, “If you are not monitoring, the cartels will be having a field day. I was told a call came from Customs to not touch the main monitoring system, but they still went ahead to destroy everything, and this system was for Customs.”
She said the OSP had been in active engagement with SML since March 2025, and correspondence between SML and the OSP showed that SML had been cooperating with the Special Prosecutor and had provided information based on requests from the OSP.
She said SML’s revenue assurance platform had fundamentally transformed reporting in Ghana’s downstream petroleum sector. Before the company’s engagement, monthly reported fuel volumes averaged just 208 million litres, far below actual market activity.
She said accurate reporting had increased this figure to 450 million litres per month, adding that between May 2020 and December 2024, SML’s systems captured 14.1 billion litres of previously unreported fuel, generating over GH¢20 billion in additional tax revenue for the State.
“This dramatic improvement in revenue collection has coincided with sustained opposition to the company’s operations,” she said.
She said the scale of previous revenue leakages was enormous and in 2019 alone, 2.36 billion litres of petroleum products went untaxed, resulting in estimated losses of GH¢3.4 billion, or approximately GH¢283 million monthly.
Since 2020 and at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has consistently achieved its revenue targets from the petroleum sector, mainly due to the revenue assurance system deployed by SML.
She said, despite a comprehensive 306-page KPMG audit commissioned by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2024 finding no evidence of financial misconduct, and public endorsements from both the GRA and Parliament’s Energy Committee, opposition to SML has intensified rather than subsided.
The Energy Committee in the previous parliament, chaired by Hon. Atta Akyea, specifically noted that SML’s systems had disrupted a “well-entrenched network” of illicit actors and cartels in the petroleum sector.
She said the GRA had similarly credited SML’s systems with significantly improving revenue assurance.
However, sources familiar with the petroleum industry suggest these institutional endorsements have only strengthened resolve among the oil cartels and those seeking to undermine the revenue monitoring system.
She said the campaign against SML has been led prominently by investigative journalist Manasseh Azure and various civil society groups, focusing on procurement irregularities and contractual disputes.
SML has responded with a GH¢21 million defamation lawsuit, maintaining that attacks on its credibility serve interests that profited from previous tax leakages.
Industry analysts suggest yesterday’s raid represents a critical juncture for Ghana’s revenue assurance efforts.
The outcome could determine whether systems that have recovered over GH¢20 billion in additional tax revenue will be allowed to continue or dismantled under pressure from actors threatened by accountability measures.
The petroleum sector remains one of Ghana’s most significant revenue sources, making the integrity of its monitoring systems crucial for national fiscal health.
The OSP and National Security have not yet provided detailed justification for the raids beyond citing contractual concerns.
Source: GNA
