The former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Adjenim Boateng Adjei, has been banned from holding public office for the next10 years by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
Additionally, he has been directed to refund to the state GH₵5,697,530 within six months and declare his assets in accordance with the Public Office Holder (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification) Act, 1998 (Act 550) within three months.
This followed findings from a petition submitted by Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) to the Commission in 2019 after the “Contract for Sale” exposé by a journalist, Manasseh Awuni Azure.
According to a CHRAJ report sighted by the Ghanaian Times, between August 2017 and August 2019, huge sums of cash deposits were made into Mr Adjei’s account at the Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) amounting to GH₵5,697,530.
Out of the total deposit made into his account, Mr Adjei was able to explain the sources of only GH₵86, 000, resulting in CHRAJ’s directive to refund to the state the stated amount.
CHRAJ, the report said, found that on two occasions Mr Adjei used his office as CEO of PPA to improperly alter the decisions of the Board of PPA in favour of Talent Discovery Limited (TDL), a company in which he has personal interest.
“In the case of Mr A. B. Adjei, his interest in TDL, a company with less than three years of existence yet won considerable public contracts and sold them without informing the awarding entity, did put him in a position of conflict of interest.
The same was found of Dr Emmanuel Yaw Boakye, who was a Technical Director at the office of the Minister of Procurement, the General Secretary of the Christo Asafo Church and a member of the PPA Board, yet failed to recuse himself during the 25th meeting of the Board Technical Committee to consider the Ministry of Education’s request to use single source procurement method to acquire 160 Kantanka pick- up vehicles from the Kantanka Automobile Limited.
CHRAJ also disqualified Dr Boakye from being appointed a member of public boards, councils and commissions for a period of three years.
Even though CHRAJ did not establish any findings of collusion between the Board and Mr Adjei, the Commission questioned the efficiency and effectiveness of the governance arrangement of the country’s public institutions.
The report noted that the Board failed to enforce its own resolution on recusal of the CEO anytime TDL was involved in any application before the board, a decision which contributed to Mr Adjei’s abuse of his office and his persistent conflicting interest.
“The Board failed to implement Section 86 of the Public Procurement Act 2003 (Act 663) which required that the Board put in place a Code of Conduct to address conflict of interest in procurement, measures to regulate matters concerning personnel responsible for procurement, declarations of interest in particular procurements, screening procedures and training requirements, and any other matter related to the ethics of procurement,” it added.
The report further faulted the board for its failure to enforce the provision in its Act that required an entity to provide justifications when applying to use a restrictive tendering method rather than an open competitive tendering.
“With the numerous applications that were reviewed by CHRAJ, only one application from the Ministry of Education provided justification for the use of restricted tendering method,” it stated.
BY TIMES REPORTER