A senior lecturer at the University of Professional Studies-Accra (UPSA), Dr. Eric Boachie Yiadom, believes the most reliable path to curbing tax revenue leakages lies in the strategic deployment of technology across critical sectors – especially the petroleum and mineral value chains.
He spoke at a public dialogue on tackling tax revenue leakages hosted by the Faculty of Accounting and Finance at UPSA, where he pointed to Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Ltd. (SML) as a practical case study.
Dr. Yiadom commended the firm’s role in deploying real-time monitoring systems to improve transparency and boost state revenue collection. For instance, he observed that before engaging SML in May 2020, there was a discrepancy of about 3.2 billion litres.
However, after SML’s engagement, within four months that figure dropped to 260 million litres – a reduction of 91.9 percent.
He described the real-time surveillance and reconciliation systems deployed by SML as akin to placing a “second eye” on petroleum flows, comparing it to the functions of an internal auditor in corporate governance.
SML’s use of ultrasonic flow meters, AI-powered surveillance and automated reconciliation systems offers a second layer of verification to data supplied by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
Dr. Yiadom also defended the controversial risk-reward payment model under which SML operates, describing it as fiscally prudent for government – particularly in innovative sectors where results can be directly measured.
The structure, he argued, protects public funds by linking compensation to measurable performance while simultaneously encouraging private investment in high-risk monitoring infrastructure.
Consequently, Dr. Yiadom has welcomed SML’s recent foray into the upstream petroleum and solid minerals sectors, describing them as logical and much-needed extensions of the firm’s work in the downstream petroleum value chain.
Dr. Yaa Serwaa Sarpong, Director of Support Services at SML Ghana, said the system replicates downstream monitoring architecture and provides Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and other state agencies with real-time insight into crude oil production and offtake volumes.
The system is designed to enable reconciliation between production, storage and export volumes – an area previously prone to opacity and under-reporting.
