The Governing Board of the Zongo Development Fund has disclosed that its Chief Executive Officer, Arafat Sulemana Adulai had the approval of the Board before purchasing Covid-19 sanitary items.

This comes after a Corruption Watch investigation uncovered that the Zongo Development Fund (ZoDF) had engaged in alleged procurement malpractices in the purchase of goods, services and works worth ¢5 million.

The management of ZoDF allegedly superintended procurement breaches such as inflation of contract figures and breaching of entity head’s threshold.

The Corruption Watch established that ¢200,000 of the ¢5 million was spent on a contract for Covid-19 PPEs.

But, according to a statement signed by the Board Chairman, Rear Admiral Mohammed Munir Tahiru (Retired), the ZoFD CEO, Mr Sulemana Adulai acted in accordance Section 90 (3) of Act 663 and subsequently subjected himself to investigation by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

“The board wises to state that it approved the procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) as part of the broader national effort to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

“At the time the items were procured, the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) and indeed, many many public institutions were not fully operational in compliance with the partial lockdown measure announced by the President. Meanwhile the PPEs were needed to save lives,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the Fund conceded in an interview with Corruption Watch that he “went beyond” his threshold in the approval of the ¢200,000 contract for Covid-19 PPEs.

The procurement of the Covid-19 related items, namely bottles of sanitiser, bottles of liquid soap and bundles of nose masks is one of the major transactions he has overseen.

The contract was awarded to Focus Women Network on March 25, for ¢200,000 after which Sulemana Abdulai wrote to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) to request for ratification of the contract because he had breached his permissible threshold as head of entity.