Resign from office – Manasseh to Amidu

Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has urged Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu to resign from his post following his persistent complaints about inadequacies in his office.

It comes after the Special Prosecutor blamed his investigators for his inability to investigate corruption claims against the dismissed Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority Adjenim Boateng Adjei.

“The resolution of the Adjenim Boateng Adjei case was taking too long to investigate because my seconded staff investigators appeared compromised. I, therefore, asked for an interim report to be submitted to the President on the referral on the Adjenim Boateng Adjei case.

“When the first draft report was submitted to me, I felt scandalised. I called a management meeting on August 10, 2020, with the investigators’ and pointed out how the incriminating evidence in their possession were inconsistent with their interim report,” Amidu wrote in a statement released Monday.

It added: “I suspended all on-going investigations in all cases except those affecting pending cases in Court. I tasked the investigators to tabulate within one week the total deposits Mr Adjei had made into his bank accounts. This is still outstanding to date.”

Reacting to the statement, Manasseh whose work led to the removal of the PPA boss from office by the President told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr that the Special Prosecutor must be bold and resign in order to draw attention to the problems of the office.

“My surprise is why Martin Amidu hasn’t resigned. Because he keeps giving one reason to the other, if all of these is continuing and you have no solution to it, the best is to resign so they could be some attention to the challenges in that office.

“You have somebody in office and for 3 years the only work he’s done is the Agyapa deal. So if there are challenges that are not being resolved, the best thing for him [Martin Amidu] is to resign”.

PPA boss sacked

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has terminated the appointment of Adjenim Boateng Adjei as Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority ( PPA) following adverse findings against him by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

The Presidency in 2019 September referred conflict of interest allegations against the PPA boss to CHRAJ following an investigation by journalist Manasseh Azuri Awuni.

The CHRAJ finding which has become public among other things said: “The evidence also established a pattern of movement of large volumes of cash through the Respondent’s Bank Accounts between March 2017 and August 2019, far in excess of his known income (Stanbic Bank: USD Account – $516,225.00; Cedi Account – ¢3.83 million; Euro Account – EU54.500; UMB Bank: $110,000). The Respondent could not offer a satisfactory explanation to the source of that huge volume of cash that passed through his bank account between March 2017 and August 2019 (unexplained wealth).

“The totality of the evidence showed that the Respondent had put himself in a position where his personal interest (financial and relational) conflicted with the performance of the functions of his office as CEO and Board Member of PPA.”

In a statement on the development, the Presidency said the decision to remove the PPA boss is premised on the conflict of interest conclusion drawn by CHRAJ.