Disgraced Former PPA Boss Granted Ghc5million Bail In Contract For Sale Case

Former Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Adjenim Boateng Adjei, has been suspiciously granted a Ghc5million bail by the Accra High Court.

Adjei’s brother-in-law, with whom he is believed to have sold state contracts to third-party companies, using a private company they set up, was also similarly granted Ghc 5million bail by the court.

The two criminal suspects are also to produce two sureties each to be justified.

Special Prosecutor (SP), Kissi Adjebeng, who the Criminal Division of the High Court presided over by Justice Mary Maame Ekue Nsenkyire on Wednesday, did not oppose bail.

Mr. Adjei, who was caught on camera taking money from undercover investigators pretending to be buying state contracts from him and his brother-in-law’s company, Talent Development Ltd, has been charged with 17 counts of corruption – made up of eight counts of using public office for-profit and nine counts of directly and indirectly influencing the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract.

Mr. Arhin on his part has been charged with one count of using public office for profit.

The court ordered Mr. Adjei to deposit his passport at the court registry and apply for it anytime he wanted to travel.

The sureties were also to deposit their national identification cards with the registry while the case has been adjourned to June 28, 2022.

After this, the court ordered the prosecution led by the SP to file disclosures and serve the accused persons with all the documents they intended to rely on for the trial as well as all witness statements within four weeks.

The accused persons were also to file the names and addresses of all their witnesses in case a prima facie case was made against them and file an alibi if any.

The fact of the case as presented by the SP is that Mr. Adjei improperly and unlawfully conducted and participated in tendering processes in awarding government contracts to Talent Discovery Limited without disclosing that he was a major shareholder of the company.

As a member of the governing board of PPA, Mr. Adjei, the SP said used the company to win the public bids and as the implementer of the decision of the board unlawfully altered the decision to favour his company.

Within a short period, the SP said Mr. Adjei amassed a “fantastic amount” of GH₵41million in his account.

Bank accounts holding that money had earlier been frozen but Adjei reportedly, quickly emptied them when the freeze time elapsed.

However, in the case of Mr. Arhin, the SP said he resides in the UK with his family and therefore should be spared from depositing his passport at the registry since he may be travelling in and out of the country in the course of the trial.

“I will go for him from the UK myself if he fails to come to court”, he told the judge.

The two accused were represented by, Kwaku Acheampong Boateng who promised that Mr. Adjei would avail himself for proceedings.