CHRAJ gives suspended PPA boss 10 days to respond to conflict of interest allegations

The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has given the suspended Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) ten days to respond to conflict of interest allegations levelled against him.

President Nana Akufo-Addo last Thursday referred an issue of an alleged conflict of interest against Mr. Adjenim Boateng Adjei to CHRAJ following a documentary dubbed ‘contracts for sale’ by journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni.

Speaking to Citi News, the Commissioner of CHRAJ, Joseph Whittal said the response from Mr AB Adjei will determine their next line of action.

“We had a brainstorming session yesterday. We have assessed the case and we came to the conclusion that it is right for Mr. Adjenim Boateng to give us his comments and to either admit or deny the allegation. He has been given ten days within which to expressly write his response and any documentation that he would want to us to see.”

“We will study that and carry out our own investigation, if necessary then we’ll proceed to invite him if he has not admitted it. If he admits, we will go straight-forward and take action based on his information but if he denies it, the constitution requires us to go into full investigation and take action.”

In the documentary, Mr. Boateng was said to have established his own company, Talent Discovery Limited incorporated, in June 2017 which won some government contracts through restrictive tendering.

The company was in turn selling the contracts to individuals as revealed by Manasseh Azure Awuni’s sting operations.

From the documentary, Talent Discovery Limited was ready to sell a contract worth GHc22.3 million to a non-existent entity.

Before this investigation, Mr. Adjei was well regarded in the procurement space.

When PPA was set up in 2005, he was the first CEO and was reappointed in 2017 when the Akufo-Addo administration came to power.

In November 2018, he was elected as an Executive Member of the African Public Procurement Network.

The PPA was established by the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) as a regulatory body responsible for the effective implementation of the Public Procurement Law in Ghana.

The Authority is mandated to ensure fairness, transparency and non-discrimination in public procurement in order to promote a competitive local industry.