The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has laid out a detailed, five-point evidential roadmap it intends to follow to secure convictions against former Finance Minister Kenneth Ofori-Atta and seven others in a high-profile corruption case involving Strategic Mobilization Ghana Limited (SML).
According to the OSP’s Half Yearly Report for July to December 2025, the prosecution aims to demonstrate that the accused persons operated a “criminal enterprise” which caused an “immense financial loss to the Republic of about ₵1,436,249,828.53.”
The case, numbered *CR/0106/2026 The Republic v. Kenneth Ofori-Atta & 7 Others*, involves seventy-eight charges. The accused include former Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) commissioners-general, a former customs commissioner, and the CEO of SML.
The OSP’s case, as extracted from the report, rests on proving five core allegations:
Firstly, the prosecution seeks to prove that the accused “conspired to set up and did perform acts in furtherance of the conspiracy to set up a criminal enterprise of directly and indirectly influencing the procurement process to obtain unfair advantage” for SML.
It alleges the contracts were secured through “self-serving patronage, sponsorship, and promotion… based on false and unverified claims” and that there was “no genuine need” for SML’s services.
Secondly, the OSP will argue that “egregious prohibited acts” were committed, as “mandatory statutory prior approvals by Parliament, and the Board of Public Procurement Authority were wantonly disregarded by the public official accused persons who collectively acted with increased emboldened impunity.”
Thirdly, the prosecution contends that the accused officials “ensured that there was no established financial management system of monitoring and verification” for the contracts. Crucially, it alleges “the channels of payments of public funds to the private company were set on automatic mode… detached from actual performance and based on false and unverified claims in willful oppressive injury to the public.”
Fourthly, the OSP states that the actions of the accused “created the opportunity for the private company to largely pretend to perform the services under the various contracts,” leading to the alleged GH₵1.4 billion loss.
Fifthly, the Republic will seek to establish that the accused “based their actions on their false claims that the private company possessed technical expertise and capability in revenue assurance.” It further alleges they falsely claimed SML had “greatly increased revenue for the Republic” and “exclusively possessed the only patented and proven technology systems in the world” for audit services in the petroleum and minerals sectors.
Two of the main accused, Kenneth Ofori-Atta and his former Chef de Cabinet, Ernest Darko Akore, are currently fugitives in the United States. The OSP has filed an extradition request with the Attorney General.
The case opened at the High Court in Accra on 11 December 2025, where several accused were granted bail of GH₵50 million each. The court has ordered summons to be served on Ofori-Atta and Akore to appear on February 26, 2026, while the case management conference is set for January 29, 2026.
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