EC Chair, deputies could be prosecuted – Kpemka

The EC Chairperson and her deputies could be prosecuted for corruption upon a review of the report by his outfit, Deputy Attorney General, Joseph Kpemka has said.

According to Mr. Kpemka, though the EC Chair and her officials have been removed from office, they could be prosecuted if the Attorney General establishes that allegations made against them as contained in the committee’s report are true.

The Committee set up by the Chief Justice, Justice Sophia Akuffo established that Charlotte Osei, blatantly breached procurement laws in awarding several contracts in her three years at the EC.
Parts of the report sighted by Citi News indicates the committee investigated six separate allegations of various procurement breaches by Charlotte Osei.

“All the six allegations leveled against Madam Charlotte Osei for which a prima facie case was established by the Honourable Chief Justice, relates to breaches to the Public Procurement Act, Act 663, as amended by the Public Procurement (Amendment) Act, Act 914” the committee’s report stated.

For all the six allegations, the committee found her culpable and said her explanation that she was not aware that she needed to go through procurement for some of the contracts because the monies involved were from donor partners, is untenable.

The report has been submitted to the AG who is expected to take a final decision.

Mr. Kpemka on Eyewitness News indicated that though the committee had completed its work and presented its findings, the AG will review these findings before taking a decision.

“A group of people reviewed those documents and came to a conclusion, but the mandate lies on us to also review this document and come to our own conclusion and not necessarily the conclusions they came to so we can determine whether we will prosecute.

“When this reference is made to us, it is incumbent on the Attorney General to asses the documentation before and then based on whatever pieces of evidence have been gathered, then, of course, we can trigger the processes in court, and some criminal charges will flow…They could be prosecuted by the state.”

Background

Back in December 2017, the EC Chairperson, Charlotte Osei and her two Deputies, Amadu Sulley (in charge of Operations) and Georgina Amankwa (in charge of Corporate Services) met with the Chief Justice over a petition filed against EC.

A five-member committee was subsequently set up by the Chief Justice to investigate the alleged corruption.



Some staff of the EC petitioned President Nana Akufo-Addo in July 2017, to remove Mrs. Osei from office over allegations of fraud and financial malfeasance as well as abuse of office.
Some of the allegations involved the single award of contracts by the EC boss in the run-up to the 2016 general election.

The petition against her alleged among others the funneling of GHc3.9 million to partition an office, the receipt of a Toyota Land Cruiser from the Mahama government and the use of about $14 million when the Public Procurement Authority had authorized her to use only $7.5 million.

Mrs. Osei also responded by making allegations of corruption against her deputies.
She claimed her detractors were hounding her because she sought to introduce systems to curb mismanagement.

Charlotte Osei accused a deputy Chairperson of the Commission of illegally signing contracts worth over GHc 40 million without her approval.

Another individual, by name Douglas Seidu, also petitioned the President in August 2017 seeking the removal of the EC Chair, on the grounds of “financial misconduct, incompetence, conflict of interest and breaches of the public procurement processes.
President Akufo-Addo in accordance with the constitution forwarded both petitions to the Chief Justice to look into the matter, which culminated in their removals.

Source: citiewsroom.com