By Murtala Issah
The prosecution in the trial of four officials of the Northern Development Authority (NDA), accused of procurement breaches, has submitted eleven new charges against the defendants.
The prosecution applied for the withdrawal of the initial charge of conspiracy to commit the criminal offence of directly or indirectly influencing the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract, contrary to Section 23 (1) of the Criminal Offence Act, 1960 (Act 29) and Section 92 (2)(b) of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).
The four accused persons include a former CEO of the NDA, Sumaila Abdul Rahman, and his two deputies, Stephen Yir Aru Engmen and Patrick Seidu, as well as the CEO of A&Q Consortium.
The eleven new charges include corruption by a public officer, contrary to Sections 239 (1) and (3) of the criminal offences act 1960 (Act 29). The four pleaded not guilty to all the charges and were subsequently admitted to bail to reappear on April 18, 2023.
In June last year, the Office of the Special Prosecutor initiated investigations into suspected corruption at the NDA over a contract awarded to A&Q’s Consortium for consultancy supervisory services under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP).
The investigations followed a complaint filed by a private legal practitioner, Martin Luther Kpebu, who requested an investigation into the operations of NDA and the actions of its Chief Executive and Board Chairman.
The complainant alleged that the NDA awarded a contract to A&QS Consortium Limited on 28 January 2020 for consultancy services for the supervision of some constituencies in the Upper West Region under the IPEP for the contract sum of Five Million Seven Hundred and Twenty Thousand cedis.
However, upon the exit of the then Acting Chief Executive who executed the contract, the contract sum was illegally increased to Ten Million Four Hundred Thousand Cedis (GH¢10,400,000.00) by the removal of the page containing the original figure of Five Million Seven Hundred and Twenty Thousand cedis and its replacement at page 25 clause 33.1 of the contract with a fresh page containing the bloated figure of Ten Million Four Hundred Thousand Cedis (GH¢10,400,000.00) to make it appear as if it is the contract executed by the previous Acting Chief Executive.
The Special Prosecutor after detailed investigations revealed in a statement that Mr. Abdul-Rahman, Mr. Engmen, Mr. Seidu, and Mr. Kuundaari intended their actions to, and their actions did in fact, directly or indirectly influence the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage to A&QS in the procurement for consultants by NDA under the IPEP by increasing the approved procurement total contract sum of Five Million Seven Hundred and Twenty Thousand cedis by an amount of Four Million Six Hundred and Eighty Thousand cedis to an amount of Ten Million Four Hundred Thousand cedis (GH¢10,400,000.00) without lawful authority.”
