Private egal practitioner and Director-General of the National Road Safety Authority, Abraham Amaliba, has called on the former Board Chairman of the GACL, Paul Adom-Otchere to confront the issues raised by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) instead of deflecting them with personal grievances.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, August 2, Mr Amaliba said the broadcaster, who also served as the former Board Chair of the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL), cannot dismiss the matter as mere victimisation due to his reported bad blood with the Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng.

“He should stop hiding behind the fact that he has some bad blood between him and Kissi Agyebeng and confront the issues as they are,” Mr Amaliba said. “I’m aware that he’s written a lot of publications against Kissi Agyebeng, but is that why he was invited? The answer is no.”

According to Mr Amaliba, the issues raised by the OSP are serious and relate to alleged breaches of the Procurement Act involving the award of a single-sourced contract that was later altered.

“This for me is not witch-hunting as he claims. This is about calling for accountability,” he stressed. “The matters are clear. Did you engage in a single-source contract, and did it turn out that another company ended up doing the work?”

Mr Amaliba questioned Adom-Otchere’s earlier claims that the issues were the responsibility of management and not the board. “Board members play a key role in shaping the direction of a company,” he noted. “You can’t say the board has no role, especially in a financial relationship that clearly ties the board in.”

He also cited the possibility of strict liability under procurement law, saying that “most of the cases that have gone to court on breaches of the Procurement Act are treated as strict liability. As former board chair, he has questions to answer.”

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“This tells you from the word go that they lacked experience in that area,” Mr Amaliba said. “If they were already in that line of work, it would have been part of their object clause. They changed it only after they got the contract.”

He also questioned the role of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), describing their approvals of such contracts as troubling.

“When you are sole-sourcing, the assumption is that the entity is uniquely placed to do the job. But this company wasn’t even licensed by the Chartered Institute of Accountants to do revenue assurance. So how was it approved?” he asked.

He stated that public officials must be willing to answer tough questions, regardless of personal history. “This issue of being invited because he has a grudge with the OSP is a red herring. It’s diversionary. Let’s focus on the substance of the case,” he said.