Crime

3 NDA officials, 1 other granted GH¢2m bail for alleged procurement breaches

 The Tamale High Court in the Northern Region yesterday grant­ed GH¢500, 000 bail each to three Northern Development Authority (NDA) officials and a private com­pany official, with three sureties to be justified with landed properties.

They are Mr Sumaila Ab­dul-Rahman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NDA, Stephen Yir-eru Engmen, Deputy CEO, NDA, (Operations), Patrick Seidu Deputy CEO, NDA, (Finance & Administration), and Andrew Ku­undaari, CEO of A&QS Consor­tium Limited, have been accused of breaches of the Public Procure­ment Act, 2003 (Act 663).

The accused, who pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption, are to deposit their passports with the Court.

The first accused has been stopped from traveling out of Ghana till the determination of the case, after he pleaded he had a scheduled travel in relation to his work as CEO of NDA.

The case has been adjourned to February 28, 2023, for Case Management Conference.

The four are standing trial on charges of conspiracy to directly or indirectly influence the pro­curement process, to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract.

The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyabeng, ordered criminal pros­ecution of the CEO of NDA and the two deputy CEOs of NDA.

The accused, individually face various charges relating to the outcome of an investigation by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) into a complaint of suspect­ed corruption and corruption-re­lated offences against the NDA and A&QS Consortium Limited, operating in Wa, the Upper West Region.

Mr Abdul-Rahman, Mr Seidu and Mr Kuundaari were each charged of directly or indirectly influencing the procurement pro­cess, to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract.

Mr Yir-eru Engmen was “charged in further two counts of the same offense,” a statement by the OFP said.

FROM YAHAYA NUHU NADAA, TAMALE

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