Martin Kpebu: Many public servants will fail conflict of interest test
Martin Kpebu, a legal practitioner, has observed that many public servants will fail the test of conflict of interest as per the country’s procurement laws and the criticism on Adjenim Boateng Adjei, the suspended Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority must be toned down.
He pointed out that the corruption case against Mr Adjei seemed to have been blown beyond proportion and wanted to know whether his actions affected the public purse or not saying “that is what I am looking at and I haven’t found it yet”.
This comes a couple of days after Mr Adjei broke his silence on the case, accusing the public of seeking to crucify him for no wrongdoing and indicated that the public is simply speaking words of untruth after his first meeting with the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
According to Mr Kpebu, “even in the documentary that led to his suspension by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, AB Adjei lost some of the contracts he bid for despite his interests and what I am interested in seeing is that, was there a loss to the public purse?”
In his contribution, Dr Ahmed Jinapor, a senior lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), who postulated that the law may be “technical” to exonerate Mr Adjei but in the face of the public, he is guilty.
“Time should be allowed to make the law take its course despite expressing disagreement with the self-recognisance bail granted him by the Office of the Special Prosecutor,” he said.
Mr Adjei was suspended after an investigative documentary by freelance journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni revealed that a company he co-owns sells government contracts it won through single-source and restrictive tendering to the highest bidder.
After suspending him, the president directed the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Office of the Special Prosecutor to further investigate Mr Adjei on corruption and possible case of conflict of interest. -3news.com
