The High Court in Tamale has convicted former Northern Development Authority (NDA) CEO, Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, his two deputies and a private contractor over procurement breaches.
The convicts are Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, former Deputy CEO in charge of Operations Stephen Yir-Eru Engmen, former Deputy CEO in charge of Finance and Administration Patrick Seidu, and Andrew Kuundaari, CEO of A&QS Consortium Limited.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) prosecuted the four over procurement irregularities under the government’s Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP).
According to the OSP, they were found guilty on seven corruption and corruption-related offences including conspiracy to influence the procurement process to gain an unfair advantage, directly or indirectly influencing procurement decisions, corruption by a public officer and corruption of a public officer.
The prosecution followed a complaint filed by legal practitioner Martin Kpebu.
The court declined to impose custodial sentences, citing the advanced age of the convicts and the OSP’s swift intervention to prevent unlawful payments, which meant no financial loss was caused to the state.
Instead, the court imposed a fine of 1,000 penalty units for each count – reported as GH¢84,000 each or 4 years in jail in default.
The OSP says the conviction reaffirms its commitment to protecting public funds.Judgement was delivered Friday afternoon, October 23.
