Mr. Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Development Authority and his two deputies -Mr. Stephen Yir-Eru Engmen (in charge of Operations) and Mr. Patrick Seidu, also a Deputy Chief Executive (Finance and Administration) have been charged by the Special Prosecutor (SP) for alleged corruption, a Joy FM report has said.
Mr. Andrew Kuundaari, the Chief Executive Officer of A&QS Consortium Limited, a consulting firm has also been cited in the charges according to the Joy Fm report on Tuesday.
According to the report, the three officials of the Northern Development Authority (NDA) allegedly doctored a page of a contract document containing the contract sum and managed to replace the page by inserting a different one with a higher sum than the actual one.
The report said that according to the Special Prosecutor (SP), the actual contract executed was GH 5.7m whereas the alleged super imposed figure by the NDA officials was GH 10.4m which the SP indicated has no basis and that the named officials pushed through and approved that amount.
The SP, according to the report, could not locate the original contract document in any file or on any platform from the archives of the NDA.
It furthered that when the officials were confronted with the doctored contract document, the SP, according to the report, all denied knowledge of it prompting the SP to describe the situation as "fictitious and mystery" even though that was the document that formed the basis for the payment.
The report also noted that the SP said an official at the NDA however confirmed that the alleged doctored portions of the contract was materially different from what he, the official, printed and made available for signing.The difference, it said, is by way of the contract sum and schedule of payment.
Legal luminary, Martin Kpebu, who petitioned the SP over the issue is however not satisfied that certain individuals such as the Co-ordinator of the Special Initiatives, the budget officer as well as all those who have played a role to have it approved have not been charged too, the report said.
