Ghana: Ghana.gov, GRA online services and the SML audit

Ghana.gov

Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia launched Ghana.gov at Jubilee House in Accra on 14 July 2021 ¹. The Presidency said local firms Hubtel, Expresspay and IT Consortium built it over about two years. The Ministry of Finance led the work with support from the Ministry of Communications. The National Information Technology Agency hosts the call centre ¹.

The platform has a web portal, a mobile app, a USSD code, a payment processing part, a notification part and a complaints channel ¹. Eight bodies were on board at launch, including GRA, the Passport Office, the Lands Commission and the Registrar General's Department ¹. The Presidency estimated that 10 to 15% of government collections are lost to inefficiency, theft and accounting schemes, and said going digital could raise collections by about GHS 3 billion a year ¹.

The portal now calls itself "Ghana's Digital Services and Payments Platform" and features GRA, the Passport Office and the Ghana Police Service on its home page ².

GRA online services

GRA lists the following services on its website ³.

• Taxpayers' Portal for filing returns, with registration by TIN or Ghana Card PIN ³.
• Payment of filed taxes and customs declarations through Ghana.gov links ³.
• A GRA Taxpayers' App for Android and iOS ³.
• E-VAT, electronic tax clearance certificates and e-auctions ³.
• Digital services registration for non-resident suppliers and excise tax stamp registration ³.
• Real-Time VAT Collection (RTVAT) and ITAS ³.

KPMG audit of the SML contracts

President Akufo-Addo ordered KPMG to audit the GRA contracts with SML on 2 January 2024. The report was released on 22 May 2024, as reported by Abigail Arthur of Citi Newsroom ⁵. The Presidency's summary of the findings, as reported by Evans Aziamor-Mensah of The Fourth Estate on 25 April 2024, is listed below ⁴.

• GRA signed long-term revenue assurance contracts with SML without approval from the Public Procurement Authority and Parliament ⁴.
• The Public Procurement Authority ratified the procurement only in August 2020 ⁴.
• The GRA board approved the 2018 and 2019 contracts, contrary to the GRA Act, KPMG said ⁴.
• SML did not fully deliver transaction audit and external price verification services ⁴.
• The downstream petroleum audit produced an extra 1.7 billion litres and GHS 2.45 billion in extra tax revenue over the review period ⁴.
• KPMG questioned the variable fee model, which led to payments of over GHS 1 billion since 2018, and said such services are usually priced at a fixed fee ⁴.

Payments and the government response

The KPMG report put gross payments to SML at GH¢1,400,202,403.56 from 2018 to 2023. Of this, GH¢454,860,396.27 was for transaction audit and price verification and GH¢945,342,007.29 was for downstream petroleum measurement ⁵. A Presidency statement on 24 April 2024 gave a net figure of GH¢1,061,054,778.00 ⁵.

The Presidency said President Akufo-Addo accepted the recommendations. GRA was told to consider ending the transaction audit and price verification contract, to move the petroleum audit fee from variable to fixed, and to assess value for money before upstream audits go ahead ⁴. KPMG warned that ending the contract without cause would make the government liable to pay SML a return on investment ⁴.

Special Prosecutor findings

On 30 October 2025, Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng said the SML contract was "unnecessary, unlawfully approved, and financially damaging to the state", as reported by Abigail Arthur of Citi Newsroom ⁶. He said there was "no genuine need for engaging SML" and that there was no proper system to verify SML's work ⁶. The Citi Newsroom report did not carry a response from SML or GRA ⁶.