The “Contracts for Sale” scandal

August 21, 2019

Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni published an investigative documentary titled “Contracts for Sale. ”

August 22, 2019

A day after the “Contracts for Sale” documentary aired, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo suspended Mr AB Adjei from office and petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to probe and possibly prosecute Mr Adjei.

October 4, 2019

The Ghana Integrity Initiative, the Local Chapter of Transparency International (TI), petitioned CHRAJ “alleging contravention of provisions of Chapter 24 of the 1992 Constitution, corruption and inappropriate conduct by Mr. Adjenim Boateng Adjei, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), (1st Respondent), members of the Board of the PPA (at the material time) and officials of Talent Discovery Ltd (TDL).”

October 27, 2020

CHRAJ completed its investigation on the petition submitted by President Akufo-Addo. The report found that Mr A.B. Adjei had put himself in a conflict of interest for failing to declare his interest to recuse himself from the board when decisions were made on the approval of contracts involving Talent Discovery Limited. The report also said Mr A.B. Adjei could not satisfactorily explain the large sums of cash deposited into his bank accounts after he became CEO of the PPA. Based on the recommendation of CHRAJ, President Akufo-Addo dismissed Mr AB Adjei.

February 11, 2022

CHRAJ completed its investigative report based on the petition submitted by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (now Transparency International Ghana). The report made the following findings:

• Mr Adjei had put himself in a position where his personal interest (financial and relational) conflicted with the performance of the functions of his office as CEO and Board Member of PPA.

• Dr Emmanuel Yaw Boakye had put himself in a position where his personal interest (relational) conflicted with the performance of the functions of his office as Board Member of PPA

• No evidence of conflict of interest was found against the Chairman and the other members of the PPA Board.

• Mr Adjei had abused or improperly used his office in favour of TDL, a company affiliated to him.

• No evidence of collusion or other inappropriate conduct was found against the Chairman and other members of the PPA Board.

• Members of the PPA Board, with the exception of the Chairman and the CEO, were not required to declare their assets and liabilities under article 286 of the Constitution.

• Professor Douglas Boateng, Board Chairman, and Mr Adjei, CEO, who were required to declare their assets and liabilities under article 286 of the Constitution, failed to declare.

• Mr Adjei had failed to show or provide any reasonable explanation that the huge cash deposits into his Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) Cedi account between August 2017 and August 2019 amounting to GHS 5,697,530.00, (less GHS 86,000.00) are reasonably attributable to income, gift, loan, inheritance or any other reasonable source.

May 2022

The OSP charged Adjenim Boateng Adjei, and his brother-in-law, Francis Kwaku Arhin, with 18 counts of offences relating to their roles in “The Contracts for Sale” scandal.

Mr. Adjei was charged with the eight (8) counts of “Using public office for profit, contrary to section 179C(a) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and nine (9) counts of “Directly and indirectly influencing the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract, contrary to section 92(2)(b) of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).

Francis Arhin, 50, was charged with one count of using public office for profit.

July 2023

An Accra High Court quashed the CHRAJ report on the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) petition. According to the judge, CHRAJ substituted parts of the complaint filed by GII with its (CHRAJ) own allegations. The Court said that CHRAJ failed to give Mr Adjei the chance to cross-examine the witnesses called during their investigations.  The Court also held that CHRAJ failed to investigate the substantive complaints made but rather focused on matters that were not part of the submissions of the GII, the complainant in the case.  

November 13, 2020

Shortly before the first Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, resigned from office, he released a press statement on the “Contracts for Sale” that the president had petitioned his office in 2019. He said his office could not proceed with the investigation after he found out that the investigators had been compromised. He, however, revealed that OSP’s scrutiny of AB Adjei’s bank accounts revealed that some named persons had paid cash totalling $4.5 million, GHS14.8 million, and 54000 Euros into Mr Adjei’s bank accounts. (His entire salary within the period could not have been up to $200,000.)

The CHRAJ report stated that Mr AB Adjei could not explain how he amassed all that money. He informed CHRAJ, as stated in the report, that his water company did not have a bank account, so the proceeds from that company were paid into his personal account. Unfortunately for him, the company he named was registered in 2019, while he started receiving those huge cash payments in 2017, when he took office as the PPA CEO.

Major Timelines and Updates

December 2022 to April 2024.

Trial of A.B. Adjei and his brother, Francis Arhin, takes place. The first prosecution witness, Manasseh Azure Awuni, testifies and is cross-examined.

May 2024

The OSP filed eight (8) “fresh” charges against AB Adjei, leaving out his brother-in-law this time. Four of the charges were on the offence of using a public office for private gain, and the remaining four were under the offence of “indirectly influencing a procurement process.”

October 2025

Trial begins with the Witness for CHRAJ testifying as the first prosecution witness.

November 2025

The investigative journalist who uncovered the Contracts for Sale scandal, Manasseh Azure Awuni, indicated that he would not testify for the OSP on the case. He had testified and was cross-examined over a one-and-half- year period. The case was withdrawn and refiled without a single new charge or particulars of offence. When he asked for an explanation, including why a key charge was left out, the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, the head of prosecution at the OSP and the lawyer on the case, could not provide any reason.

Read Manasseh’s full reasons here.

December 2, 2025

The OSP’s Director of Strategy, Research and Communications, Samuel Appiah Darko, said on Facebook:

“Let me repeat: investigative journalists provide a spark. What they uncover is not, in itself, evidence. Criminal investigators must scrutinise the material, build on it, corroborate it, obtain original documents, and ultimately convert information into admissible evidence.”

 “Investigators [at the OSP] had initially relied on the journalist’s findings to proceed to court, but once the case was reviewed, it was found to be hollow and lacking strong evidentiary support. It was therefore re-investigated, with parallel financial inquiries and authentication of documents to address the deficiencies identified by the prosecutor.”