The opposition National Democratic Congress has challenged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to publish the list of alleged sole-sourced projects the president claimed a GHc2.75 billion was saved from.
While addressing lawyers at the Bar Conference in Takoradi on Monday, President Akufo-Addo said “in spite of the recent happenings at the PPA surrounding its suspended acting CEO, GH¢2.75 billion has been saved for the public exchequer from January 2017 to July 2019 as a result of the PPA reviewing contracts brought before it for approval either under sole sourcing or restrictive tendering procedures.”
This, the President stressed, is in sharp contrast to the performance of the PPA in the years before 2017, when approvals were given as a matter of course, and no savings achieved at all.
But General Secretary for the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia addressing the media on the back of President Akufo-Addo’s speech trashed all claims made by the President.
“President Akufo-Addo claimed that he had saved the country about GHc2.75 billion through the rejection of sole-sourced contracts presented to the PPA. Didn’t he know that the PPA boss was actually the source of the sole sourced contracts? We wish to submit this that, this claim is false and challenge the president to publish the full list of all the specific cases of savings,” he added.
President Akufo-Addo announced last year that his government had reduced sole sourcing by 37 percent within his first year in office.
The figure had dropped from 622 requests in 2016 to 394 requests in 2017.
This means there had been a 228 drop in the number of sole-sourced contracts applied for within the one year period.
PPA boss suspended for alleged corruption, conflict of interest
President Nana Akufo-Addo in August suspended the Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Mr. Adjenim Boateng Adjei over allegations of corruption and conflict of interest.
A documentary by freelance journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni indicted the PPA boss, Adjenim Boateng Adjei for allegedly engaging in the sale of government contracts.
The documentary captured how Mr. Boateng established his own company, Talent Discovery Limited incorporated, in June 2017 which won some government contracts through restrictive tendering.
The company was in turn selling the contracts to individuals as revealed by Manasseh Azure Awuni’s sting operations.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor had been directed by the President to investigate the corruption aspect of the case while the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice probes the conflict of interest aspect.
But the suspended PPA boss believes he is being crucified unnecessarily by the public.
“The public is simply speaking words of untruth. I regret the way I am being crucified for doing nothing,” he told the media after his interrogation by the Special Prosecutor in August.