Bright Simons has been vocal about the GRA/SML saga in Ghana.
He has highlighted concerns regarding the lack of competitive bidding and due diligence in the awarding of contracts to SML, a company that was relatively unknown until it secured a contract to assist the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in detecting invoice fraud.
Simons pointed out the redundancies and duplications of efforts that have cost the Ghanaian taxpayer millions of dollars without significant value in return. Simons, who is the vice-president in charge of research at IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, has been part of the broader public financial management work in the natural resources sector.
His work, alongside that of other think tanks like ACEP, has been crucial in probing the SML affair and uncovering issues within “revenue assurance” programs in Ghana.
