The coordinator for a media tour organised by Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML), prevented the representative of the Onua Group from participating in the site visit.
SML is a private organisation which started revenue assurance services to the government of Ghana in 2020.
Following an investigation by the Fourth Estate on the works of SML regarding the amount of money they claim to have saved the country compared to what they have received for “no work done”, the organisation, in order to present their side of the story invited the media to its office at Community 22 in Tema, Tuesday, December 19, 2023, at 11 in the forenoon.
The company claimed in February 2023 that it had saved Ghana over GHc3 billion in revenue that would have been lost to the state but for its services in the contract it signed with the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
But according to the Fourth Estate’s report, its “investigation found this claim to be completely false”, adding that “the Managing Director of SML, Christian Tetteh Sottie, claimed he did not know about the figure when The Fourth Estate confronted him with counter evidence. He said the media, including the state-owned Daily Graphic, had taken a presentation SML made to the GRA board out of context and reported the wrong information. He said SML had called the journalists to draw their attention to the supposed error.”
To present their side of the story, SML in its attempt to let the media know the role they have really been playing for the state, selected people they know from the media instead of allowing the editors in the organisations to decide on who represented them at the event.
At the entrance of the briefing room was a lady by name Ruth, who from OnuaOnline’s sources was hired as a consultant to coordinate the event. She demanded the identity of the representative.
After identifying himself, she asked if they had met before and the Onua representative responded in the negative. Meanwhile, Ruth welcomed almost every journalist who thronged the place by their names and exchanged pleasantries with them in the process.
She then demanded an ID card to authenticate the Onua Group reporter’s identity, which was provided. After seeing Onua TV on the card, she requested to take a shot, make a photocopy for some verification, which the rep declined.
Ruth, then asked that he waits outside for some time. After patiently waiting for about 20 minutes, the lady returned and started apologizing for what happened.
She explained that Media General was adequately represented at the event, hence the need not to allow the Onua Group’s representative.
Ruth therefore asked the rep to wait for information from his colleague from TV3 because the briefing had started already.