High Court orders implicated four NDA officials to present defence

High Court in Tamale has ordered all four (4) accused persons implicated in the Northern Development Authority (NDA) corruption trial by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to open their defence.

The accused persons are Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, former CEO of the NDA; Stephen Yir-eru Engmen and Patrick Seidu, both Deputy Chief Executives of the NDA; and Andrew Kuundaari, CEO of A&QS Consortium Limited.

The Special Prosecutor in June 2022 commenced investigations into suspected corruption and corruption-related offences at the NDA over a contract awarded to A&Q's Consortium.

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

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

The presiding judge in court ruled that the state has 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 complaints 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.

The investigation revealed that the accused persons 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 authorization.

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