The Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of policy think tank, IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe is suspicious of all sole-sourced contracts awarded by the Akufo-Addo government.
Mr. Cudjoe’s comments follow an investigative report released by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) which found Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Adjenim Boateng Adjei guilty of conflict of interest in the award of government projects.
The Commission said it found overwhelming evidence to show that Mr. Adjei “put himself in several positions where his personal, relational, and pecuniary interest in TDL and other companies actually conflicted with the performance of the functions of his office as CEO and Board Member of PPA. The Commission holds that the Respondent [Mr. Adjei] has contravened article 284 of the 1992 Constitution.”
“The Respondent, being the CEO of PPA, the Regulator of the procurement sector, the Commission is of the strong and considered view that he has gravely abused his high office of trust, and the appropriateness and proportionality of any action to be taken by the Commission must be commensurate with the gravity of the abuse.”
Mr. Adjei who was earlier suspended in August 2019 was sacked by President Akufo-Addo on Friday, October 30, 2020.
While speaking on the Big Issue on Citi TV, Mr. Cudjoe thus said all sole-sourced “contracts must be put on-hold and investigated”.
“I think that this ruling really nullifies every procurement deal that has been done by this administration and any procurement that has gone through the PPA. What this ruling also means to me is that none of the procurement decisions within the last three and half years can be said to be verifiably true because one, the person manning the post is found culpable at this stage of having engaged himself in contracts for sale, it tells me that every one of the procurements that have gone on in this administration is not believable.”
“Every sole-sourced procurement deal that this government has put forward through the PPA must be questioned, every one of them and again it goes against President Akufo-Addo’s promise to protect the public purse and saving made is all shambolic because it means to that the process was not fair. What this ruling also means is that every sole-sourced procurement under this government is all fake and suspicious and all those contracts must be put on-hold and investigated.”
What did PPA boss do?
In the documentary, Mr. Boateng was accused of establishing Talent Discovery Limited, which won some government contracts through restrictive tendering.
The company was, however, selling the contracts to individuals as revealed by Manasseh Azure Awuni’s investigations which involved meetings recorded with secret cameras.
General Manager of the Company, Thomas Amoah, was captured in these meetings.
Talent Discovery Limited was ready to sell a contract worth GHc22.3 million to a non-existent entity that Manasseh Azure Awuni’s team had made up.
This contract was eventually awarded to B-Molie Limited, a company said to be a sister company of Talent Discovery Limited, according to the documentary.
President Nana Akufo-Addo subsequently referred Mr. Adjei to the Special Prosecutor following corruption claims allegations levelled against him in an investigative documentary by former Multimedia Journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, titled “Contracts for Sale”.
The President also referred him to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) because of conflict of interest claims.
