The former Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Adjenim Boateng Adjei and his brother-in-law, Francis Kwaku Arhin, standing trial on corruption-related offences have been granted five million cedis bail each with two sureties to be justified.
This was after the Special Prosecutor (SP), Kissi Adjebeng did not oppose bail at the Criminal Division of the High Court presided over by Justice Mary Maame Ekue Nsenkyire today.
Mr Adjei has been charged with 17 counts 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 while Mr Arhin was 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.
Giving direction for the trial, 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 SP presenting the case indicated 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 as a sure bet of winning the public bids and as the implementor 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.
The SP who did not oppose the bail told the court to use its discretion but take into consideration the amount of GH₵41million discovered in the PPA boss’s accounts.
For Mr Arhin, the SP mentioned that he resided 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.
Pleading for bail for his client, Kwaku Acheampong Boateng said Mr Adjei would avail himself for proceedings.
He stated that the accused since he was arrested has been cooperative with the process.
“An order was granted for his accounts to be frozen and even after that we continue to be very cooperative up till now”, he added.
The accused he said had many businesses he was running in the country and therefore was not a flight risk.
He informed the court that there was a civil aspect of the case they were pursuing and they would religiously do whatever was required of them for a smooth trial and produce people of substance to stand as sureties.
Counsel for Mr Arhin also prayed the court for bail stating that his client was a businessman and has a fixed place of abode assuring to cooperate with the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
