Amidu: CHRAJ understated bank statements of former PPA CEO

The Special Prosecutor, Mr Martin Amidu, says the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) understated the bank statements of the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

In a letter dated Friday, November 13, the Special Prosecutor said although he had not started investigations in the “Contracts for Sale”, the basis for which Mr Adjenim Boateng Adjei’s appointment was terminated by the President, his office was also investigating allegations of corruption levelled against him by the Secretary to the President.

While commending CHRAJ for their report which led to the termination of appointment of Mr Adjei, Mr Amidu said, “The only problem with the CHRAJ report is that for some reason it understates the amounts disclosed by the bank statements from the three banks accounts of Mr. Adjei exhaustively reviewed by the Auditor General for this Office.”

He said his investigations had revealed overwhelming documentary evidence against the former PPA boss.

CHRAJ Report

According to the CHRAJ report, Mr Adjei, following his appointment, opened three accounts at Stanbic Bank, Airport City Branch.

In respect of his USD account, Mr Adjei is said to have opened the account within a month after his appointment and as of August 28, 2019, Mr Adjei had $516,225 to his credit and his debits stood at $504,607.87.

Regarding his Cedi account, which was opened on January 21, 2017 before his appointment, with an amount of GH₵30,000; as of August 29, 2019, Mr Adjei’s account had over GH₵ 3.83 million credit with an over GH₵3.81 million debit.

The report said the balance in Mr Adjei’s Euro account as of August 29, 2019, stood at €54,500 in credit and €37,333.00 in debit.

It added that Mr Adjei’s UMB dollar account with account name “428872” had been credited with $218,000 as of March 11, 2019.

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Amidu’s investigations

According to Mr Amidu, a review of Mr Adjei’s bank statements from the time of his appointment in 2017 to August 19, 2019, revealed that he had in total, GH₵15,691,559.30, USD4,467,655 and € 54,500.

He noted however that the investigations were “unduly delayed for no apparent reasons.”

He said his office was conducting the investigation in collaboration with the Auditor General, but that collaboration was cut short after it was revealed that his investigators had been compromised.

“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 scandalized. I called a management meeting on 10th August 2020 with the investigators and pointed out how the incriminating evidence in their possession were inconsistent with their interim report.

“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. On the same day, 10th August 2020, I wrote a memorandum to the Acting Head of Investigation expressing my concerns. In this memorandum, I stated inter alia that: "If you did your calculations and analysis you will come out with the following closing balance of deposits for Mr. Adjei from 2017 to 19 August 2019:

              CEDIS                                    USD                            EUROS

Total:  15,691,559.30                 4,467,655.00                   54,500.00

You will also see that the monthly deposits/receipts into Mr. Adjei's Account between 2015 and 2016 ranged from GH₵9,000.00 to GEISI 18,000.00 and $200 to $1000.00."

Read Mr Amidu’s full statement here

Below is the review of Mr Adjenim Boateng Adjei’s bank statements