No evidence of breach was found – Adom-Otchere 'freed' from Christmas tree decor allegations

The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has said it found no evidence of procurement breach in the allegations involving the Board Chairman of the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) and the acquisition of Christmas decorations for the company in 2021.

A journalist, Sacut Amenga-Etego, petitioned the Commission on what he claimed was a misuse of public funds in the procurement of Christmas trees by Paul Adom-Otchere.

He said Adom-Otchere had failed to invite at least three vendors to submit bids for the procurement of the Christmas trees.

He added that the total value of the decorations is above the threshold of requesting quotations from vendors and that the call for bids ought to have been advertised in newspapers, according to the Public Procurement Act, Act 663.

The journalist further argued that there was a breach of procurement when the cost of GH₵ 118, 000.00, was divided, so it stayed within the GHC 100,000.00 threshold for price quotation.

“Fourthly, by directly involving himself in the procurement of the Christmas trees, Mr. Paul Adom-Otchere has abused the powers of his office and breached one of the cardinal principles of corporate governance, that of separation of the roles of the chairman of the board and the chief executive officer,” the petition read.

CHRAJ said despite not finding evidence against the Board Chair, it was wrong for him to be “requesting for invoices and his appearances in the media in respect of matters involving the GACL of which he is the Board Chairman.”

The Commission said this attitude “does not auger well for good corporate governance.”

“We recommend that the respondent should restrain himself from interfering in the work of management and restrict himself purely to his prescribed functions as Board Chairman,” it further said.

Some but not several provisions of corporate governance in some roles that he played in the procurement of the inspirations and his appearance via media on matters relating to the procurement.”

SSD/NOQ

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