Minority Leader, Dr. Ato Forson, has reacted to the stylish delay of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the appointment of KPMG to carry out an immediate audit of the revenue assurance contract signed between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilization Ghana Ltd (SML).

President Akufo-Addo, on January 2, ordered the immediate suspension of the revenue assurance contract signed between GRA and SML.

He has also appointed the Audit, Tax, and Advisory Services firm, KPMG, to conduct an immediate audit of the transaction.

Reacting to this, the Minority Leader, in a statement, said the decision by the President ‘has come too late in the day’, arguing that the president should have led the fight in the wake of the scandal.

He added that Parliament has already directed the Finance Committee to audit the “infamous agreement, and the Committee is actively seized of the matter.”

He accused the President of attempting to order an audit into the transaction to dissuade Parliament from looking into this matter.

“The President, who should have led this fight in the wake of this scandal, is playing catch up since Parliament has also directed GRA to suspend all payments to SML.”

“This whitewashing attempt by the President in the name of an audit will not dissuade Parliament from looking into this matter to stop the siphoning of state resources into the private pockets of government officials and their crony business partners.

According to the statement by the Minority Leader Dr Ato Forson President “Akufo-Addo’s appointment of KPMG to audit the so-called revenue assurance agreement between Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) has come too late in the day.

“Parliament has already directed the Finance Committee to audit the infamous agreement and the Committee is actively seized of the matter.

“The President, who should have led this fight in the wake of this scandal, is playing catch up since Parliament has also directed GRA to suspend all payments to SML.

“This whitewashing attempt by the President in the name of an audit will not dissuade Parliament from looking into this matter to stop the siphoning of state resources into the private pockets of government officials and their crony business partners.”