NDA case: Tamale High Court orders 4 to open defence

 The High Court in Tamale has ordered all four accused implicated in the Northern Development Authority (NDA) trial by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to open their defence.

They are Sumalia Abdul-Rah­man, former CEO of the NDA; Stephen Yir-eru Engmen, former Deputy Chief Executive (Opera­tions) of the NDA; Patrick Seidu, former Deputy Chief Executive (Finance & Administration) of the NDA; and Andrew Kuundaari, CEO of A&QS Consortium Limited.

They face 11 charges related to corruption and procurement viola­tions in the award and execution of contracts for the NDA.

A while ago in court, the presiding judge ruled that the state had established a prima facie case against the accused individuals on all 11 counts, compelling them to present their defence.

The OSP brought charges against the four following its inves­tigation prompted by whistleblow­ers. The investigation revealed that the accused had violated procure­ment laws and engaged in corrupt practices.

According to the investigative report, Abdul-Rahman, Engmen, Seidu, and Kuundaari manipulated the procurement process to benefit A&QS unfairly in contracts for consultants under the Infrastruc­ture for Poverty (IPEP) project by inflating the approved contract sum from GH¢5,720,000.00 to GH¢10,400,000.00 without proper authorisation.

Additionally, Kuundaari’s submission of invoices for the inflated contract sum was deemed fraudulent.

The accused have pleaded not guilty to charges and have been granted bail in the sum of GH¢2 million.

Abdul Rahman was charged alongside his two deputies—Ste­phen Yir-eru Engmen and Patrick Seidu as well as Andrew Kuundaari, the Chief Executive Officer of A&QS Consortium.

Abdul Rahman, Seidu and Ku­undaari were charged with a further

 beach of directly or indirectly in­fluencing the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract with Yir-eru Engmen being charged with a further two counts of the same offence, the Special Prosecu­tor said in a statement.

The Special Prosecutor in June last year, commenced investigations into suspected corruption and corruption-related offences at the NDA over a contract awarded to A&Q’s Consortium, Accra-based Citi FM reports Tuesday.

The contract was awarded to A&Q’s Consortium for consultancy services under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Pro­gramme.

The complaint was filed by a private legal practitioner, Mr Mar­tin Luther Kpebu, who requested an investigation into the opera­tions of NDA and the actions of its Chief Executive and Board Chairman.

In 2017, the government insti­tuted the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme ( IPEP)) with the objective to reduce pover­ty, especially in rural and deprived communities, hence the establish­ment of Northern Development Authority (hereafter, NDA) was established under the Northern Development Authority Act, 2017 (Act 963) to mobilise resources for the accelerated economic and so­cial development of the Northern Development Zone – constituting the Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper West and Upper East Region headquartered in Tamale.

 BY TIMES REPORTER

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