General News of Friday, 6 November 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Adom-Otchere accuses CHRAJ of not giving dismissed PPA boss a fair hearing

Adjenim Boateng Adjei Adjenim Boateng Adjei

Paul Adom-Otchere says the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) is destroying the rules of natural justice by not giving Adjenim Boateng Adjei, the dismissed CEO of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), a fair hearing.

According to Paul Adom-Otchere, the host of Good Evening Ghana (GEG), the former PPA has sent him a document which shows some of the conclusions of CHRAJ are false.

For example, in the final report, CHRAJ indicated that Adjenim Boateng Adjei had GH¢14,000,000 in his accounts at Stanbic Bank. Adjenim Boateng Adjei has explained to Paul Adom-Otchere that this is false.

Adom-Otchere explained that AB Adjei had told him that “during the record of proceedings, CHRAJ never asked him about his bank accounts…there was not a single cross-examination of all the people that CHRAJ spoke to about his story.”

He indicated that in the past, CHRAJ gave room for cross-examination of parties that they were investigating.

On his GEG show on Thursday evening, Paul Adom-Otchere said: “During the proceedings at CHRAJ under Justice Emile Short, there was cross-examination…as far as I’m concerned, what I saw in CHRAJ many years ago with Justice Emile Short and Ken Attafuah presiding, I thought that’s how CHRAJ works. AB Adjei says it has changed; we don’t know whether we have to believe AB Adjei…”

He continued: “If that’s what is happening then they are destroying the Commission. Whoever is at the Commission and is not observing the rules of natural justice is destroying the Commission. That’s an important work of the constitution of Ghana. You can’t destroy the Constitution of Ghana…”

Adom-Otchere further claimed that the part of the CHRAJ report which stated that the dismissed CEO of the PPA refused to answer when he was asked that aside from the water business he did with his wife where again did he derive his income, did not happen.

Adom-Otchere added that the bank statement from Stanbic Bank which was sent to him by AB Adjei also contradicts CHRAJ’s claims that AB Adjei’s accounts were opened after his appointment as PPA boss.

“If it turns out that he is right, if it turns out that it is true that the bank account that CHRAJ alleges were opened in 2017 after he took over…..as PPA boss, but it was actually opened in 2004, that’s not going to be palatable…I sincerely hope that we can find something,” Adom-Otchere stressed.