Some members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), notably Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng and Akbar Yussif Rohullah Khomeini, have taken to Facebook to provide legal justifications for which the suspended Public Procurement Authority (PPA) Chief Executive Officer(CEO) Adjenim Boateng Adjei, is still receiving his pay more than a year after his suspension following an exposé by Manasseh Azure Awuni on his alleged corrupt dealings at the authority.
The NPP members claim that Mr Azure Awuni, in his speech at the 2020 Baah-Wiredu Memorial Lecture, sought to suggest that the Government of President Nana Akufo-Addo is doing something illegal or wrong by continuing to pay the suspended PPA boss. They argue that it is perfectly legal to pay suspended workers, citing the Labour Act and legal precedents.
Mr Azure Awuni had said that “more than a year since the “Contracts for Sale” scandal, the Office of the Special Prosecutor is yet to tell Ghanaians what it has done about it. CHRAJ is yet to release its report on the matter. Meanwhile sources close to the Public Procurement Authority say the suspended PPA CEO still takes his salary and enjoys his benefits as though nothing has happened.”
In reaction, Press Secretary to the Minister of Education, Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng, wrote: “In the leading case of Korley v. Anim & Others [2011] 111 HC p. 13-131, the Court held that suspension of an employee must go along with full pay.
Section 69 (2)(a) of ACT 651 says “ An employer shall not impose a pecuniary penalty upon a worker for any cause whatsoever”
It appears, therefore, that there is nothing untoward about the PPA boss receiving his salary whilst on suspension and being investigated, contrary to the insinuation by Manasseh Azure Awuni, which a number of people are quoting gleefully and copiously.
Never mind. We are all learning.”
Also, Akbar Yussif Rohullah Khomeini, a Deputy National Communications Officer for the NPP also resorted to the some legal cases to point out to Mr Azure Awuni that there was nothing wrong with continuing to pay Mr Adjenim Boateng Adjei.
“The likes of my friend Mannesah are advocates of the rule of law but want a selective application of the law. That is not how to build a nation. The fact the PPA boss was investigated by Mannesah doesn’t strip him off his rights under the law that when those rights are honored, he sees wrongdoing.
The rights of journalists like Mannesah under the law must be protected. The rights of employees under the law like the PPA boss must be protected. We cannot approbate and reprobate on the law,” he noted on Facebook.
Mr Azure Awuni clarified that he meant that the President had done his part by referring the matter to the Office of the Special Prosecutor(OSP) and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) but the OSP and CHRAJ were yet to do their part.
The Contracts for Sale Scandal
In August last year, Manasseh Azure Awuni aired a documentary titled “Contracts for Sale”.
In it the now suspended PPA Boss through his own company, Talent Discovery Limited, won government contracts mainly through restrictive tendering and then sold them to genuine contractors. He was immediately suspended and the matter referred to the OSP and CHRAJ.
