The Tamale High Court has convicted a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Northern Development Authority (NDA), Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, and three others for seven counts of procurement-related offences.
The court, presided over by Justice Eric Ansah Ankomah, convicted the four yesterday, but declined to impose custodial sentences.
Instead, the court fined fined the convicts 1,000 penalty units on each count of procurement-related offences, with a four-year jail term in default of payment.
The other convicts are Stephen Yir-Eru Engmen, a former Deputy CEO in charge of Operations of the NDA; Patrick Seidu, a former Deputy CEO in charge of Finance and Administration; and Andrew Kuundaari, CEO of A&QS Consortium Limited, a private company.
The offences are conspiracy to directly or indirectly influence the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract, directly or indirectly influencing the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract, corruption by a public officer, and corruption of a public officer in respect of procurement contracts of NDA under the Infrasctructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) of the Government of Ghana.
The court explained that it declined to impose custodial sentences because of the advanced age of the convicts and the fact that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) had acted swiftly to prevent unlawful payments under the contract, resulting in no loss to the state.
The prosecution was initiated by the OSP following investigations into a complaint filed by a legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu.
Appeal
Counsel for the convicts, Sylvester Isang, described the non-custodial sentences as favourable to his clients.
He said the OSP could appeal against the sentences if it is dissatisfied with the court's decision, adding that the defence would respond appropriately to any such appeal.
On January 24, 2023, an investigative report issued by the OSP found that the four had influenced the procurement process to give A&QS Consortium an unfair advantage in securing a consultancy contract under IPEP.
According to the report, the approved contract sum of GH¢5.72 million was increased by GH¢4.68 million to GH¢10.4 million without lawful authority.
It further stated that A&QS submitted invoices based on the inflated contract sum, resulting in approval for payments totalling GH¢8.33 million, which exceeded the approved contract amount by GH¢2.61 million.
A further GH¢2.07 million remained outstanding at the time of the investigation, the report said.
The report also found that Mr Engmen had purported to accept an offer from A&QS on behalf of the NDA for consultancy services covering the design and supervision of infrastructure works and engineering services, despite being aware that the necessary approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) had not been obtained.
The report followed a directive issued by the OSP on July 1, 2022, ordering the Controller and Accountant-General to freeze payments to A&QS under the NDA's implementation of IPEP pending the conclusion of investigations.
Although the directive was subsequently lifted in principle, the OSP advised public officers involved in the payment approval process to comply with the terms of a January 16, 2020 PPA approval, which prescribed GH¢5.72 million as the full contract price for the consultancy services.
