{"id":101576,"date":"2025-11-02T03:16:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T03:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=101576"},"modified":"2025-11-02T03:16:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T03:16:00","slug":"imani-boss-slams-sml-deal-for-total-failure-in-policy-and-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=101576","title":{"rendered":"IMANI boss slams SML deal for total failure in policy and finance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 4 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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The fallout from the Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) contract scandal escalated as President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, delivered a scathing indictment, describing the controversial agreements as \u201ccancerous\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr Cudjoe asserted that the SML contracts represent a fundamental collapse of oversight, having failed at \u201cevery level of propriety\u201d\u2014from financial management to policy formulation.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Citi FM on Saturday, November 1, 2025, Mr Cudjoe expressed profound dismay at the lack of basic governance standards applied to the agreements between SML and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).<\/p>\n

Mr Cudjoe did not mince words, arguing that the SML arrangement was rotten at its core, irrespective of the technicalities. His comments follow the explosive findings released by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), which concluded that the contract was both unnecessary and unlawfully approved.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think the SML thing is cancerous. Beyond it being a duck and an elephant, it is just cancerous. I just can\u2019t imagine that every level of propriety fails, financial, policy wise,\u201d Cudjoe stated, referencing earlier metaphorical descriptions of the deal\u2019s inconsistencies.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The think tank leader pointed to the sheer absence of rigour in the contractual process as the most damaging aspect. He highlighted that the failures were not marginal but systemic, suggesting a profound neglect of public financial management protocols.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat even hurts me is that there seems to be no proper guiding policy as to how this thing should be done. I mean, the question is what was the level of need?\u201d he questioned, underscoring the lack of a proper needs assessment report prior to the contract award.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mr Cudjoe\u2019s strong condemnation aligns directly with the detailed findings of the OSP investigation, which established severe governance deficits:<\/p>\n

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  1. No Genuine Need:<\/strong> The OSP concluded there was \u201cno genuine need for engaging SML,\u201d reinforcing Cudjoe\u2019s policy concerns.<\/li>\n
  2. Unlawful Procurement:<\/strong> The contracts were secured through \u201cself-serving patronage and promotion based on unverified claims\u201d and involved key officials ignoring mandatory approval processes, leading to significant statutory violations.<\/li>\n
  3. Financial Disaster:<\/strong> The probe exposed that financial management and performance monitoring of SML were inadequate. Payments were reportedly made on an \u201cautomatic basis without verification of work completed\u201d, resulting in substantial, ongoing financial losses to the state.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The convergence of the OSP\u2019s official investigation into statutory violations and IMANI\u2019s long-standing critique regarding value for money solidifies the argument that the SML contracts represent a severe failure of policy oversight and accountability, costing the Ghanaian taxpayer millions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    \"FranklinThe fallout from the Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) contract scandal escalated as President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, delivered a scathing indictment, describing the controversial agreements as “cancerous”.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[328,1883,117,10,9,5359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-imani","category-national","category-news","category-politics","category-popular","category-sml"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}