A former lawmaker, Mr John Ndebugri, has wondered why “a very clear” corruption scandal involving the Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Mr A. B. Adjei, has been “kept under wraps”.

In August this year, investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni premiered his ‘Contracts for Sale’ documentary in which Mr Adjei was captured allegedly selling government contracts to third parties through his own company.

The embattled CEO was suspended by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who also referred the allegation to the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for further probe.

Speaking about the matter to demonstrate how governments fail “to prosecute their own”, as well as how the country can measure her fight against corruption, the former Zebilla MP told Benjamin Akakpo on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Wednesday, 18 December 2019 that: “Let me take this procurement case as an example – the one that involves Manasseh Azure – we have heard nothing about it; Adjei was suspended or something, since then, we haven’t heard anything about it”.

“So, it is not possible for me, sitting here, to say Adjei is corrupt. But if he had been taken before a court of competent jurisdiction, prosecuted and he was acquitted, then it would be a mark that he is not corrupt”, Mr Ndebugri explained.

In his view, “The problem is partly … that people don’t want to deal with their own; otherwise I don’t understand why a very clear case like the Adjei case should just be kept under wraps”.

Asked to elucidate further on that comment, the private lawyer said: “At least, there was some evidence that he had established a company, which got so many contracts when, in fact, he was the one in charge of – not directly deciding but playing a very significant role in deciding whether a particular contract should go to a particular contractor or company or the other – and, so, it became public knowledge and there were video clips on it, and, so, as far as I’m concerned, the material for prosecution was available, and yet [nothing has happened]”.

“Otherwise”, he noted, “If he had done nothing wrong, there was no reason to suspend him anyway. So, by suspending him, it means you suspected that he had done something wrong, so, you should follow through and get the matter determined. That has not happened”.

Citing another example to buttress his point, Mr Ndebugri said: “Shortly after that [the PPA scandal], there was this one involving the Youth Employment Agency (YEA)”.

“The one who also went and inflated a contract price or something. He and his two deputies were dismissed. But what they did was criminal. It wasn’t sufficient just to dismiss them. They were dismissed and nothing has happened to them.

“They should have been arrested and prosecuted”, he insisted.

“So, in one sense, if you look at the fact that various governments come and when their own officials or officials closely connected with them are found or suspected of having committed corruption or acts of corruption are left off the hook, then we can say that in that sense, we are not fighting corruption effectively. And then what we do is that we wait until another government comes and starts chasing those who had left office. And even in those cases, by the time you jump on them, the evidence would have been virtually destroyed. So, we limit corruption to those who are opposed to us”.