AB Adjei suspension: Coalition of CSOs demand substantive actions
A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) is calling on government, to take substantive actions, in the matter of the suspended Public Procurement Authority (PPA) CEO, Adjenim Boateng Adjei.
This is according to a press statement copied to ghanabusinessnews.com
The group of ten CSOs are:
Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII); Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA); Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana); Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC); Citizen’s Movement Against Corruption (CMaC); Africa Center for International Law Accountability (ACILA); Amnesty International; SEND – GHANA; Parliamentary Network Africa (PNA) and Penplusbyte.
They want President Akufo-Addo to suspend the Board of PPA, while investigations are taking place.
“The Board cannot be left blameless in this whole contracting saga as revelations made in the said documentary raises serious concerns about the Board’s understanding of the Conflict of Interest injunction imposed by Article 284 of the 1992 Constitution and how to manage it. Additionally, the Board’s oversight or possible complicity in the possible abuse of the restricted tendering rules requires them to step aside for a thorough investigation to be completed,” the group said in the statement.
They also demanding, the president and his government, to suspend the use of restricted tendering and single sourcing, while investigations by the Special Prosecutor and CHRAJ are underway. To this, they argue that, the restricted tender approved contracts mentioned in the documentary, violated the amended Public Procurement Act 2016 (Act 914).
Whereas the president has directed CHRAJ and the Special Prosecutor to investigate the matter already, these CSOs further want the president to instruct all other investigative bodies, not to initiate or trigger any parallel investigations to the OSP-CHRAJ probe.
They also called on the same investigating bodies, to extend their probe into Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) whom the group believes, may have personnel complicit in corruption.
“Even though CSOs recognize the prompt action of government on the matter, we encourage the President and government to go the full nine (9) yards with this case as recent history of investigations into alleged corrupt conducts of high-profile government appointees have not yielded encouraging outcomes as far as the fight against corruption is concerned,” the statement said.
By Gifty Danso