PRESS STATEMENT READ BY MINISTER FOR INFORMATION, MUSTAPHA

ABDUL-HAMID (Ph.D), ON PRESIDENT AKUFO-ADDO’S IMPLEMENTATION OF

RECOMMENDATIONS OF CHIEF JUSTICE’S COMMITTEE SET UP TO LOOK INTO
PETITIONS AGAINST MRS. CHARLOTTE OSEI
AND HER TWO FORMER DEPUTIES.

The Government yesterday issued a press statement announcing the removal from office
of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Charlotte Osei, and her two
deputies, Mr. Amadu Sulley and Mrs. Georgina Opoku Amankwa upon the
recommendations of a Committee that was set up by the Chief Justice on the basis of
Article 146 of the Constitution. The Committee recommended their removal from office
on grounds of stated misbehavior and incompetence. Article 146(9) obliges the President
to act upon the recommendations of the committee, which he did. Before the government
issued the release, the President met each of them separately to inform them of the
recommendation and gave them copies of the report of the committee.

On the 25th of July 2017, the President received a petition against Charlotte Osei, and per
the dictates of the Constitution, forwarded the petition to the Chief Justice the very next
day. Subsequently, two other petitions against the two deputies, namely Amadu Sulley
and Georgina Opoku Amankwa were also received, and same were forwarded to the
Chief Justice. Once the petitions were sent to the President of the Republic, in accordance
with article 146 of the constitution, the President’s only duty was to refer the petition to
the Chief Justice, who shall determine whether there is a prima facie case. In other words,
the President had no choice but to forward the petition to the Chief Justice. There were
six allegations against the chairperson, four against Amadu Sulley and four against
Georgina Opoku Amankwa. After the Chief Justice established a prima facie case in all
three instances, namely six allegations against the Chairperson, four against each of the
two deputies, she established a Committee, under article 146(4), to look into the
allegations, where prima facie cases had been established. The same Constitution
provides that under article 146(5) that the Committee appointed under clause 4 of the
article, shall investigate the complaint and shall make its recommendations to the Chief
Justice, who shall forward it to the President. The Committee, in accordance with the
Constitution, was set up, investigated the allegations, called witnesses, and the
respondents were represented by legal counsel. Once the recommendation has been
forwarded to the President, article 146(9) offers the President no discretion but to act on
the recommendation. For emphasis, it reads, “the President shall, in each case, act in
accordance with the recommendations of the committee.” This, ladies and gentlemen, is
exactly what has happened. After seven months, it submitted its report.

This is not the first time article 146 has been applied. Indeed, in 2015, two petitions were
filed for the removal of the then Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights and

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Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). The Committee investigated complains of serious
misconduct, inappropriate exercise of office, serious misjudgment and breaches of the
law against her and recommended her removal to the President. Like now, President
John Mahama, at the time, had no option but to act first on the petition, and lastly on the
recommendation of the Committee.
The Committee found that the “evidence before the committee proves that the Electoral
Commission did not observe any prudent administrative and financial management of the
2015 political parties’ primaries.

AMADU SULLEY
The allegation was that political party primaries were treated as a private commercial
project by the Deputy Chairperson with funds paid directly into the personal accounts of
key staff for functions to be performed for party primaries. After witness statements from
the Chairperson herself against Alhaji Sulley, the EC Director of Finance, Joseph Kwaku
Asamoah, the Director of Elections of the NDC party, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, among
others, and the respondent, Amadu Sulley himself, the Committee established that the
“NDC paid over GHS5 million in cash” for their primaries to the EC and the NPP paid
GHS233,270 and GHC276,600 for its presidential and parliamentary primaries
respectively and that as the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations, Alhaji Sulley
“has the oversight responsibility over the Electoral Services Department and directly
supervises the operations of the said department. But that Alhaji Sulley “defied all the
known prudent financial administration practices and took over five million cedis in cash
and kept same in the custody of individuals.” The Committee found that “he allowed over
GHS6 million received on behalf of the Commission to be handled in a manner that
decries any reasonable and prudent accounting principles, leaving room for fraud and
misapplication of the money. Though in the midst of investigations of how the money was
managed the Commission opened an account for internally generated funds in December
2015, the deputy head of the Electoral Services Department was holding on to
GHS360,000 in cash until 2016 when the Director of Electoral Services claimed it was
deposited with the chief accountant for “safe keeping.” The Electoral Services
Department, indeed, treated the political parties’ primaries as a private project, the
millions of cedis received for the purpose on behalf of the Commission were handled in a
manner that threw all known sound financial management principles in any institution to
the wind and that “there was gross financial mismanagement which opened the
Commission to fraud and misappropriation of money.” Also, “Election materials belonging
to the Commission could not be accounted for since no proper records were kept as to
how these items were procured from the Commission’s stores.” The Committee held that
Alhaji Sulley demonstrated that “he lacks the skill and ability to perform his duties as the
head and supervisor of the Commission’s operations.” The Committee held that at least

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an amount of GHS320,822 remained unaccounted for the consumables used for the
primaries of the political parties in 2015 and that up to date, the remaining GHS360,000
has still not been paid into the EC’s account created in 2015 for that purpose, which they
allege is still with the Chief Accountant for ‘safe keeping.’

The other allegation that the Committee investigated was that the Deputy Chairperson in
charge of Operations had persistently instructed officials to carry out illegal vote transfers
on the Voter Management System in clear breach of the law and operational policies of
the Commission. Documentary evidence, produced by the representative of STL, the
contractor in charge of the EC electoral register database. Chairperson Charlotte Osei
also gave evidence against Amadu Sulley, saying that when she heard that STL was
effecting transfer of voters from the Voter Management System, illegally, she received
email evidence from STL of voter transfers done through the VMS by STL between 1 st
January, 2014 and 3rd and 4th September, 2015 to date. When she confronted STL why
they were doing so against the laid down procedures, the contractor said that all the
transfers were “authorized” and showed “scanned copies of WhatsApp instructions to
STL” from Alhaji Amadu Sulley. There were 17 such exhibits, with a list of the people to
be transferred either through WhatsApp or handwritten notes bearing Alhaji Sulley’s
signature. Though he denied them, the Committee found that he wrote and signed them
and that the WhatsApp messages were indeed from his telephone. The Committee found
him culpable of misbehavior as his conduct was held to amount to “abuse of his office.”
It, therefore, recommended that “the respondent Amadu Sulley be removed from office
as a Deputy Commissioner of the Electoral Commission for incompetency and
misbehavior.”

He was also asked to refund the amount of GHS320,822 which was found to be lost to
the EC under his watch. The Committee also recommended that the Chief Accountant,
Kwaku Owusu Agyei-Larbi be made to pay to the Commission the amount of
GHS360,000 which he claimed was still in his custody for safe keeping, failing which he
be charged with the offence of stealing.

Georgina Opoku Amankwa

The same petitioner, who filed against Amadu Sulley, filed against the EC deputy
chairperson in charge of Corporate Affairs. The Committee focused on four allegations.
That she signed two contracts with Superlock Technologies Limited (STL) on 6 May, 2015
for $24,397,000 and $16,509,500 respectively without adhering to the provisions of the
Public Procurement Act.

Under her watch, EC staff endowment fund contributions for eight months, between 2013
and 2014, were not paid into the Staff Provident Fund at a time when she was Deputy

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Chairperson in charge of Finance and Administration and had direct supervision over the
Fund.

On the STL contracts, the Committee held that Mrs. Opoku Amankwa “demonstrated
gross incompetence and misconduct in executing the two contracts, (1) by her failure to
seek prior authorization from the PPA and (2) by concealing the fact that she had already
signed the contracts when she instructed the Director of Finance to write to the PPA for
authorization, and (3) having discovered the illegal act, she did not withdraw the contract
and persisted with it, damning the consequences it would have on the EC, not even when
the Electoral Commissioner started probing it.” The Committee further held that her action
violated The Public Procurement Act, Section 40, and constituted a criminal offence under
Section 92 of the same Act.

On the allegation of the missing contributions to the Staff Endowment Fund, it was found
that the contributions were wrongfully applied as “operational expense” of the EC and that
the EC now has to refund the money. Mrs. Charlotte Osei gave evidence against Mrs.
Opoku Amankwa, referring to heightened staff agitation over their missing funds. The
Chairperson also gave evidence that she had undertaken internal audit and also invited
EOCO to look into the matter. She failed to disclose the misapplication of the
contributions when she was confronted by the then EC chairperson, Dr Afari-Djan and
took no concrete steps to replace the funds, even years after they were misapplied. It was
held that her actions and inactions had cost financial loss to the staff and, probably, the
EC.
On the two allegations, the Committee held she had misconducted herself and showed
gross incompetence within the meaning of Article 146 of the Constitution and
recommended her removal from office as a Deputy Chairperson of the EC.

CHARLOTTE OSEI

The Committee looked into six allegations against the Chairperson.

The first was that, without recourse to the Commission, she engaged the services of
lawyers, Sory@Law without going through the procurement process as the law demands
and that there is no formal contractual arrangement between the Commission and the
law firm and the basis for computing legal fees unknown, involving fees of GHS400,000.
The Committee found that there was no documentary evidence of engagement of the
Commission of the services of Sory@Law. The Committee found further that the
appointment of Sory@Law was in breach of the Public Procurement Act. The Committee
said that she appointed the lawyers through sole sourcing without the approval of the
Public Procurement Authority and that she misbehaved with the appointment of Messrs
Sory@Law. It held further that “the events surrounding the engagement of Messrs

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Sory@Law as lawyers for the Electoral Commission shows incompetence, ineptitude and
derilection of duty on the part of Mrs. Charlotte Osei and we so find.”

The second allegation was that the Chairperson of the EC unilaterally abrogated a duly
procured contract with an entity, STL, and awarded the same contract to the same entity
without recourse to the Commission and without due process of the Public Procurement
Act. The Committee found that upon her appointment in June 2015, Mrs. Osei detected
some irregularities with the STL contract which was yet to be performed and was right to
have abrogated it. However, the Committee found that her decision to unilaterally award
fresh contracts to the same STL in the aggregate sum of $22,340,814 was illegal. That
she failed to comply with the internal procurement procedures of the Electoral
Commission created by the Commission itself, namely the Entity Tender Review Panel,
and the Public Procurement Act. All in all, she awarded 12 contracts to STL for the
supplies of ICT equipment and services and the Committee found that only one of the 12
did not exceed her procurement threshold as Chairperson, which was GHS50,000 for
goods and services before July 2016. All the letters awarding the 12 contracts to STL
were signed by the Chairperson herself between 8th February 2016 and 25 th November
2016. The Committee held it “to be very absurd coming from the Chairperson, the very
person who led the crusade to abrogate the initial STL contracts, citing breaches of the
Public Procurement Act.

The Entity Tender Review Panel consists of the chairperson and her two deputies. The
Committee found the STL contracts awarded by the Chairperson as unlawful, violating
Sections 16 and 40 of the Public Procurement Act (Act 914). The Committee found that
she “misbehaved” in awarding the new STL contracts. It further held that she showed
“sheer incompetence in the manner she handled or conducted the award of new STL
contracts, in view of her experience with the initial STL contracts which were abrogated
at her instance.”

The third allegation is over the decision to acquire a new office block for the Commission.
The Committee found that the Chairperson breached the law on procurement in awarding
contracts for works and consultancy service for the new building. The Public Procurement
Authority in February 2016 granted approval to the EC to award the contract for
consultancy service for partitioning the new offices, at the contract sum of GHS98,100 as
requested by the EC. Again in April 2016, the Chairperson wrote to the PPA for another
restricted tender for internal partitioning of the new office block at a total cost of
GHS3,410,268. This was also granted.

The Committee found that the two contracts for the partitioning of the new office block
and the contract for the consultancy service were not put before the Entity Tender
Committee as created by the Public Procurement Act and the EC’s own internal

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procedures. The Committee further held that the contracts awarded far exceeded the
threshold legally allowable to her per the procurement laws. The contracts awarded were
GHS3,976,244 instead of the approved rate of GHS3,410,263 and GHS209,443 instead
of the approved figure of GHS98,100. The Committee therefore held both to be unlawful.
The evidence of witnesses given against the Chairperson were by her own staff, namely
the Head of Procurement Unit of the Commission and also the Principal Electoral Officer.

The fourth allegation is about the award of contract for the construction of pre-fabricated
District Offices for the Electoral Commission and contract for consultancy for the pre-
fabricated works against the procurement rules. From the evidence, the Committee held
that the construction of the offices was divided into four lots and the Chairperson
personally awarded all four at the higher rate $14,337,962. This was in excess of
$6,837,962.53 and that she awarded the contracts without reference to the Entity Tender
Committee as required. To stress, the Committee found that the value of the pre-
fabricated office buildings was stated as $7.5 million in the letter to the PPA but the
contract was awarded by the Chairperson for $14.3 million. The fifth allegation was about
the use of donor support of $76,000 by the USAID grant for the EC’s ICT environment.
The contract for the design of the EC’s website was also held to be illegal since she
awarded the contract without recourse to the rules of procurement.

The last allegation was also about the use of donor funds for an award to repackage the
strategic plan of the Commission, funded by the UNDP and to develop a new logo for the
commission. That also was in breach of the procurement law.

All six allegations levelled against Mrs Charlotte Osei related to breaches of the Public
Procurement Act (Act 663 and as amended by Act 914). The Committee quotes the Chief
Justice as having observed in her prima facie determination that: “The Public
Procurement Act is an enactment which, one may say, is made in pursuance of the
principles of probity and accountability expressed in article 37(1) of the Constitution. It
envisages that in the procurement of goods and services with public resources, there
must be standard practices which are aimed at fairness and value for money so as to
strengthen the national economy. It is for this reason, in my view, that the Act is so
detailed and specific in the process and procedures it prescribes.” In the words of the
Committee, “In all the procurement activities which we had to investigate, the findings
have been that Mrs Charlotte Osei failed to comply with the Public Procurement Act.”

The Committee dismissed the defence by the Chairperson that procurement was not part
of her core functions. The Committee observed that she herself was writing directly to
seek approval from the PPA to do restricted tender. That, she herself as chairperson
wrote directly to companies notify them of contract awards. It held, “If procurement of
goods and services was not part of the core business of the Electoral Commission as

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argued by Mrs Charlotte Osei, why did she take over the above roles directly when there
was a Procurement Unit with a Head in the Electoral Commission?”
The Committee concluded that enough evidence had been established, and, therefore,
recommended her removal as the Chairpersons of the EC based on misbehaviour and
incompetence. It further recommended that the EC ceased using the services of Messrs
Sory@Law as solicitors but that the firm be paid for its legal services rendered.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we need to conclude by reiterating what is obvious
– that this removal of the Chairperson of the EC and her two deputies, has nothing to do
with the President, his government, the NPP or, indeed, any political party. It is purely an
internally generated matter.

The matters that became the subjects of the petitions against the former Electoral
Commissioner and her colleagues were the same set of allegations which they
themselves threw against one another in the media and in the public space, including Mrs
Oei’s allegation that Mr Amadu Sulley misused GHS6m from the political parties and the
counter allegation against her that she abused the procurement processes in several
contracts. What we have seen appears to be high simmering tensions within the Electoral
Commission, which resulted in an implosion after the 2016 elections. These are the facts
of the matter and these are the very facts that the Constitution of the Republic were
applied against. Remember that the President took an oath to abide by the dictates of the
Constitution of Ghana, failing which he pledged to subject himself to penalties arising
therefrom. He has done nothing more or less than to uphold the Constitution of the
Republic of Ghana.

It would be tragic for the country, in the face of these facts and circumstances, for anyone
to attempt to turn this matter into a party-political affair. Those who do so do not seek the
welfare of the country.

It is our hope that Ghana, after these trying events, will end up with electoral body that
will uphold the dignity and integrity that the is demanded of the office and its servants.

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