Esayas charged with abuse of power

Esayas Dagnew, former Chief Operation Officer at the Ethio Telecom, has been charged with grave corruption and abuse of power for allegedly damaging the public interest in relation to a procurement made with ZTE for an NGPO project.
The same day, February 20, 2019, the Federal Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by the police and upheld the lower court’s decision granting him 50,000-birr bail in another case.
Police told the High Court, that they suspected him of improper conduct in relation to a contract with US based consulting firm EDM. Investigators said the company obtained the deal without following the proper procurement procedure.
On February 13, Esayas was freed on bail by the lower court. It was the second time this happened because On January 22 his bail was reversed by the Supreme Court Reversed. Police were then given ten more days to investigate the former Ethio Telecom official.
He was initially accused of awarding a purchase for the military complex, Metals, and Engineering Corporation (MeTEC), using his affiliation with his brother who was the former CEO of the MeTEC, Major General Kinfe Dagnew.
After the Adjudicative Court, the High Court granted bail for the suspect at 200,000-birr but then police appealed to the Appellate Court.
The recent charge also listed a co-conspirator, who allegedly mismanaged the telecom’s procurement manual during the purchase of networking devices for universities.
He is suspected of concluding a contract with the Chinese telecom multinational, ZTE, worth USD 44.5 million. And then illegally benefiting from the transaction.
The charge was read to him at the public trial which will be held at the 15th criminal bench of the Lideta Court this Tuesday.