High Court quashes CHRAJ report on A.B. Adjei

The High Court in Accra has quashed a report by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) which made adverse findings against Mr. A.B. Adjei, former Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

In its judgment, the court, presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay found that CHRAJ failed to give the applicant a fair hearing by substituting a complaint by the Ghana Integrity Initiative as its own and not allowing him to cross-examine the witness.

Further, the court concluded that CHRAJ failed to investigate the complaint made by the GII thus focusing on extraneous matters.

Following the “Contract for Sale” investigative piece by Ace Journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) petitioned CHRAJ to investigate Mr Adjenim Boateng Adjei, the PPA Boss then, and other Board members for corruption and other related crimes.

Subsequently, after CHRAJ had made some findings against Mr. A.B. Adjei, he filed an action for Judicial review at the High Court.

He contended among others that he was denied a fair hearing and thus prayed to the court for an order of Certiorari to quash the same.

In its decision, the court also noted that CHRAJ wrongly assumed jurisdiction by purporting to investigate the charge of failure to declare assets of the applicant when no such allegation had been received by its outfit.

Additionally, the court held that since Mr. Adjei had all times denied the allegations made against him, it was incumbent on CHRAJ to have allowed him to face his accusers.

In view of the above, the court quashed CHRAJ’s decision made in its report on Mr. Adjenim Boateng Adjei.