The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has arrested three top former officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Customs Division in connection with suspected corruption and corruption-related offences linked to revenue assurance contracts between GRA and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML).
The arrested individuals are:
- Rev. Dr Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, former Commissioner-General of the GRA
- Isaac Crentsil, former Commissioner of Customs and current General Manager at SML
- Christian Tetteh Sottie, former Technical Advisor at GRA and now Managing Director/CEO of SML
According to the OSP, the arrests are part of ongoing investigations to ascertain the legitimacy of multi-million cedi contracts awarded to SML and to verify the company’s claims that its technology services have saved Ghana substantial revenue losses.
All three suspects were detained overnight after they failed to meet bail conditions set by investigators.
The arrests come on the heels of a controversial raid by the OSP and National Security at SML’s operations centre on June 9, 2025. The company accused authorities of dismantling its real-time revenue monitoring infrastructure, which it said could result in millions of cedis in lost daily revenue for the state.
Images from the site showed monitors, servers, and critical IT infrastructure dismantled, sparking concerns from industry players over the potential disruption to Ghana’s customs revenue collection.
The controversy surrounding the GRA-SML contract began in late 2023 when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo commissioned KPMG to investigate the agreements between the two entities.
Following growing public pressure, the full KPMG report was released on May 22, 2024, after a request by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) under the Right to Information Act was initially denied. The President later waived privilege under the RTI Act to enable public access to the findings “in the interest of transparency”.
The KPMG report raised questions over procurement processes, contract valuations, and the true value of the services rendered by SML.
The OSP’s probe is now focused on whether state officials abused their offices in awarding or benefiting from the GRA-SML contracts and whether SML’s operations were truly delivering value for money.
The case has sparked intense public and political debate over accountability, transparency, and the integrity of public-private partnerships in Ghana’s revenue system.
Investigations are ongoing.
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