Massive corruption outbreak in Akufo-Addo’s government.

The list of corrupt cases involving appointees of the Akufo-Addo government, is growing by the day, with the latest being the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Emmanuel Sin-Nyet Asigri, caught in the procurement malpractices web.
He has since being sent packing from the NYA by the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, after a crunch meeting last week Friday in the Office of the President which he and his board chairperson, Francisca Oteng Mensah, who doubles as the New Patriotic Party (NPP)Member of Parliament for the Kwabre East Constituency in the Ashanti Region, attended.
Emmanuel Sin-Nyet Asigri, according to The Herald’s sources, had awarded a multimillion Ghana cedi contract to a company; Prefos Ghana Limited owned by his friend on “Single Source Procurement Method” and made part-payment without the board approval, having failed to submit budget details.
Interestingly, it has been established that an amount of GHC1. 810 million out of over GHC11, 750 million was paid to Prefos Limited by Sin-NyetAsigri on March 4, 2019.
The contract was to train some young people selected from some 254 district assemblies across the country to be able to install streetlights and also repair.
The board had approve the project, but had not approve the budget and payment for the transaction from its 5percent allocation it is currently receiving from the Common Fund for young development programme.

After dishing out the contract, The Herald is informed Sin-Nyet Asigri, had allegedly tried to use his contacts at the beleagued Public Procurement Authority (PPA) to give a retroactive approval to the contract after it was detected by the board and commenced an investigation into the transaction, but the PPA through a letter dated June 20, 2019, kicked him out and decided to probe the deal instead.
The suspended PPA boss, Adjeinim Boateng Adjei, had in a letter titled “Re: Request for ratification for use single source procurement method” addressed to Emmanuel Sin-NyetAsigri stated “Your letter No. NYA/PPA/VOL.3/76 of 27th May, 2019 requesting for ratification of your use of the Single Source Procurement Method to engage Prefos Ltd for the training of five hundred (500) young people in the areas of streetlight installation, maintenance and repairs refers.”
“At the Board Technical Committee Meeting No.27 (027/2019) held on Wednesday, 19th June 2019, the Board noted the content of your request and decided that, a team of investigators from the PPA should be assigned to your firm to investigate the circumstances that gave you cause to undertake the procurement activity without prior approval of the PPA to enable us to process your application”.
The board, as far back as March 28, 2019, discussed the contract after detecting some breaches and fraud in the transaction and raised alarm.
The board demanded some document from the management of the Authority led by Sin-NyetAsigri with Bright Acheampong, Deputy in-charge of Programmes and Operations with Rocky Obeng, Deputy in-Charge of Finance and Administration.

The Herald’s findings are that, two committees on the board; legal and finance were task to jointly investigate the issue and submit to the board. While the Legal Committee was led by one Lawyer Dennis Owusu-Appiah Ofosuapea, the Finance Committee was led by Mustapha Ussif, who is the National Service Scheme (NSS) boss.
On March 28, 2019, when it became clear that Sin-NyetAsigri, was not forthcoming with documents and on transaction, Mr Ofosuapea, at a Board meeting asked the CEO to inform the board about the kind of information and supporting documents he had, concerning the requests by the committee.
The board minutes available to The Herald also captures the NSS boss, as rehashing “the specific documents the Committee needed to finalize on the work”.
The documents, include the MOU on the streetlight training, Evidence of registration of the training center, Breakdown of the cost, the specific motorbike as has been projected by management and all documentations on the step (i.e training provider etc).
Mr Ofosuapea, is captured again to have asked for the source documents that informed the various project estimates.
This paper is informed that on the day Sin-Nyet Asigri, was billed to meet the committee with the documents, he rather dispatched one of his deputy to the meeting, but he could not produce the expected items.
A report detailing the alleged breaches and fraud, was eventually compiled and submitted to the board for action, but as the board was delaying in making a decision, petitions were sent to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), the Chief of Staff, the Ministry of Youth and Sports among others.
Following this, a meeting was called by the Chief of Staff last Friday where Sin-Nyet Asigri was told to resign, but it is, however, unclear if the government is instituting a full scale investigations into the matter and for a criminal prosecution if some culpability is established.
The Herald is informed that Sin-Nyet Asigri’s conduct is what led to the resignation of Arnold Boateng, one of the board members recently citing “real issues” at the Authority.

The pro-NPP New Statesman newspaper with ties to the presidency last Saturday reported that the resignations of Arnold Boateng and Sin-NyetAsigri, follows a petition brought to the attention of Chief of Staff regarding a questionable procurement procedure which thePPA has been called in to investigate.

The Chief of Staff summoned the chairperson and the CEO of the NYA to her office last week but both were out of town. An official letter was sent to them to appear yesterday (Friday August 30), which both of them did.

The meeting was also attended by Deputy Chief of Staff Samuel Abu Jinapor.
The NYA chair, Francisca Oteng, confirmed one procurement in which the CEO had allegedly breached procedures, awarding the said contract without the knowledge of the board.
This matter was referred to the PPA last month to investigate. The PPA assigned a team of investigators to gather information on it.

The NYA board acted following receipt of a petition from one Ibrahim Ofori alleging corruption relating to procurement. The board met to confer on the matter on July 2 2019.
The NYA chair followed this up with a letter to the Minister of Youth and Sports on July 10.
In contention is the procurement method used to engage Prefos Ltd for training 500 young people o install, maintain and repair streetlights. The value of the procurement in question is GHS4.5 million.
The Daily Statesman also understands that the matter has been reported to National Security.
Security officials will look to the PPA investigation to determine whether the matter should be reported to the Ghana Police Service’s Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation.
From the board minutes it was clear that members were concerned about the issues as several paragraphs were dedicated to it with various members demanding documents upon documents on the transaction.

The Herald noted that Mr Boateng at March 28, 2019, board meeting, had also demanded for copies of the MOU between COTVET, NYA and NBSSI on the training programme.

He further asked for the list of various modules, how the prospective trainees will be selected, the certification process and the mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation.

Another board member Joshua Gmayenaam Makubu, also drew the board’s attention to the fact the first quarter of the year was almost exhausted. He therefore called for a fast tracked process for the committee to finish its work, for the necessary approval process to go through for management to carry out its expected action.

Corruption under Akufo-Addo worst in Ghana's history' - Nyaho-Tamakloe

Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe has described as worrying, President Akufo-Addo's posture towards allegations of corruption levelled against his appointees and officials in his government.
According to the founding member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), corruption in the current administration is the worst in the country’s history.

"The level of corruption under Akufo Addo's government is the worst ever in the history of Ghana and if he doesn't take care, there'll be a civil unrest under his leadership just like the revolution that happened in the North of Africa," the Statesman and politician told Atinka FM’s presenter, Saddick Adams.
Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe’s outburst comes on the back of the recent documentary by investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, which exposed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) for alleged conflict of interest and corruption.

 The investigations revealed that Talent Discovery Limited (TDL), a company incorporated in June 2017, and owned by Chief Executive of the Authority, Adjenim Boateng Adjei, has won a number of government contracts through restrictive tendering. Manasseh Azure Awuni has also confirmed that the company was engaged in selling contracts.
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has since suspended Mr Adjei and referred him to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Special Prosecutor for further probe.

But Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe says the President should severely punish his appointees rather than suspending them.

"Nana Addo should have sacked the CEO of PPA and not suspend him. He should have been sacked and an independent investigative body set to look into the matter. A lot of the scandals have been covered by government because the President knows clearly that if he tries to investigate them properly, the results could topple his government," he said.
He added that "In any civilised jurisdiction, Nana Akufo Addo would have resigned from the seat after all these series of scandals that has rocked his government some of which he is directly involved."

Corruption under Akufo-Addo no more a perception but a dreaded reality – Bernard Mornarh

Convener of the Coalition for National Sovereignty, Bernard Mornarh, has lambasted President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for not handling corruption cases of his appointees properly.

According to him, the President’s approach to dealing with corruption scandals exposed by well-meaning Ghanaians under his government has been a laughable disaster of a pattern.

In his view, instead of President Akufo-Addo, fighting and uprooting corruption, he has rather turned himself into a “Clearing-Agent-In-Chief instead of Commander-In-Chief” by ensuring that offenders pay the damning consequences after investigations find them guilty.

Bernard Mornarh questioning the integrity of the president noted that if indeed President Akufo-Addo was committed to fighting corruption, he should have been prosecuting at least 53 of his appointees by now.

He noted that, aside corruption, poor governance including security issues, bad economic situations have led to unrest and agitations by Ghanaians who he indicated have not been treated fairly by government.

In his words, “the corrupt level of the current government has passed the test of hypothesis and has assumed the level of theory and in full practice”.

Addressing the public on behalf of Mornarh at the Kejetia Market in Kumasi, PNC National Organiser, Desmond Ntow, vowed that the coalition is ready to take on the government through demonstrations in the various regions to ensure the Akufo-Addo government become “sensitive to the plight of Ghanaians”.