CSOs Call On PPA Board to Step Aside

Civil society organisations (CSOs) working against corruption insists that the Board of Directors of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) must "step aside" as investigations into the 'contract for sale' documentary continues.

Freelance journalist, Manasseh Awuni Azure, in his investigation uncovered that the Chief Executive Officer of the PPA, Adjenim Boateng Adjei, used a company he holds a share in to win government contracts and in turn sold them out at a fee.

According to the coalition, the defence put up by the Chairman of the Board, Professor Douglas Boateng, in the aftermath of the airing of the documentary to exonerate the board of any wrongdoing was "problematic".

Professor Boateng in an interview said the embattled Chief Executive Officer of the PPA, Adjenim Boateng Adjei, recused himself from the approval process and that the Board was not influenced in any way in the award of the contracts to the company, Talent Discovery Limited (TDL).

In a statement issued in Accra on Friday and copied the Ghanaian Times, the coalition of CSOs said, "President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo must suspend the Board with immediate effect."

According to the coalition, Professor Boateng's defence "reconfirms our observation that the Board's appreciation of the conflict of interest rule in Article 284 of the 1992 Constitution as expressed in the PPA Act is problematic.

"In addition, the issues raised by the Manasseh documentary raises serious questions about the diligence with which the Board carries out its mandate to vet and approve methods for restricted and sole sourced tenders."

The coalition, made up of 10 CSOs further demanded that President Akufo-Addo suspended the use of restricted and sole sourced tenders "knowing that the Board is likely to apply the same standards it used in the TDL case to new requests for approval before it".

The CSOs assured the public of its "unalloyed" commitment to ensuring that the matter was properly investigated and persons found culpable punished.

"Ultimately, it is important that we ensure that this abuse of the procurement process does not happen again," the coalition stressed.

Members of the coalition are the Ghana Integrity Initiative, the Centre for Democratic Development, the Ghana Anti Corruption Coalition, the Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability, and Send Ghana.

The rest are the Pan Africa Parliamentary Network, Citizens Movement Against Corruption, Amnesty International, Pen Plus Bytes and the Media Foundation for West Africa.

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