Suspended PPA boss charged; granted self-recognisance bail

Suspended chief executive of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) Adjenim Boateng Adjei has been charged by the Office of the Special Prosecutor for allegedly selling government contracts.

Mr Adjei was charged Thursday together with the chief executive of Talent Discovery Limited (TDL), Francis Arhin, but was granted self-recognisance bail to appear again on Friday for further investigations into a case of corruption and abuse of office.

The PPA boss was suspended following an investigative documentary by Manasseh Azure Awuni, which revealed a company he co-owned, has been selling government contracts it won through single source and restrictive tendering, to the highest bidder.

In suspending him, President Nana Akufo-Addo also directed CHRAJ and the Office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate his appointee of conflict of interest and corruption.

Mr Boateng was consequently invited to appear before the Office of the Special Prosecutor today, August 29 to assist in investigations.

Augustine Obour who represents the embattled PPA boss told journalists Thursday that his clients are innocent but said they resolved to honour the invitation by the Office of the Special Prosecutor because they respect the laws of the land.

“We have been here, they have been interrogated, they have found out we don’t have contracts for sale. Who has bought a contract? Bring it out!” he stated.

According to him, his clients were interrogated on “whether or not we have sold any contract”.

“We have not sold any contract” he said, adding his clients have expressly stated they don’t even know the phony company which Manasseh claimed to have used to buy a contract from TDL.

“This is another fabrication in this country; it is because that is an interview that they changed it, there is nothing,” Mr Obour claimed.

Investigations by freelance investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, has revealed that Talent Discovery Limited (TDL), a company incorporated in June 2017, which has Mr AB Adjei as a shareholder, has won a number of government contracts through restrictive tendering.

The journalist established in the documentary that the company was engaged in selling of those contracts to other entities including a phoney company he (the journalist) set up for the purposes of the undercover job.

Undercover encounters with the General Manager of the Company, Thomas Amoah, revealed that the company was selling a ¢22.3 million road contract to K-Drah Enterprise, the phoney company Manasseh used for the investigation.

This contract was awarded to B-Molie Limited, a company Mr Amoah said was a sister company of TDL.

TDL also had for sale, a Ministries of Works and Housing contract, to construct a concrete drain in Santa Maria in Accra as well as a contract to build a one-story dormitory block in the Asante Akim North District.