The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has charged Mr. Sumaila Abdul–Rahman, the Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Development Authority, and two of his deputies– Mr. Stephen Yir-eru Engmen and Mr. Patrick Seidu– as well as the Chief Executive of A&QS Consortium Limited, Mr. Andrew Kuundaari for conspiracy to directly or indirectly influence the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract.

Mr. Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, Mr. Patrick Seidu, and Mr. Andrew Kuundaari have been charged with a further count each of directly or indirectly influencing the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract, while Mr. Stephen Yir-eru Engmen has been charged with a further two (2) counts of the same offence.

“The four persons will be arraigned before the High Court (Criminal Division), Tamale on Tuesday 31 January 2023,” a statement from the Special Prosecutor indicated.

The two deputy CEOs of NDA, Patrick Seidu and Mr. Stephen Yir-eru Engmen were recently sacked by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

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.

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.

The complaint alleged that NDA awarded a contract to A&QS Consortium Limited (hereafter, A&QS) 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 (GH¢5,720,000.00).

“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 (GH¢5,720,000.00) 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.”