Don't Stampede Prez Akufo-Addo to Release KPMG Audit Report - Martin Kpebu Cautions Ghanaians

Lawyer Martin Kpebu, has asked Ghanaians to give the Presidency ample time to read through the KPMG audit report of the agreement between the Ghana Revenue Authority(GRA) and the Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) instead of stampeding him to release it.

According to Martin Kpebu, giving the President more time to read through the report will ensure that all persons cited in the report are offered the opportunity to respond appropriately.President Nana Akufo-Addo, on January 2, this year, commissioned the KPMG to look into the contract between the SML and the GRA, following an exposé by the Fourth Estate.The Presidency, on Wednesday, April 3, 2024, confirmed its receipt of the audit report carried out by KPMG on the deal.Eugene Arhin, Director of Communications at the Presidency, who confirmed receipt of the report in a Facebook post, said the President was "studying the findings of the audit report, and will, in due course, make his decisions known to the Ghanaian people."Speaking on TV3's "The Key Points" programme, on Saturday, Martin Kpebu admonished Ghanaians against stampeding the Presidency in releasing the report without first giving a fair hearing to the persons cited."By the practice, I think that we are stampeding him.

I'm not in favour of the work going to KPMG, but well it’s too late, we couldn't fight enough, but if you look at the time they got it (the report), I'm hearing 27th March, if you look at audit reports, even the Audit Service, even our Audit Service Act, when they bring audit reports, what they call management letter, and there are issues, you have 30 days to respond.“So, I don't think that we have a basis to say when KPMG brought the report it should be less than 30 days.

people who have been cited in the report should be given time to respond,” he stressed.

 Kpebu, however, indicated that the President must make public the findings of the report to bring to rest the matter.

 He said, "As for that (making the report public) it is non-negotiable, the President cannot sit on it, it has to come out.""If he sits on the report he will be strengthening the hands of John Mahama again because in Mahama’s regime when the GYEEDA corruption came he released a full report."