The High Court in Tamale has ordered the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Northern Development Authority (NDA) and three others to file their processes to open their defense.
The Court despite being informed of a notice of appeal by the accused persons to challenge the order to open defense said, they should file their documents by June 19, 2024.
On Tuesday, May 28, per an update on the website of the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the accused persons informed the Court about an appeal lodged against its verdict to open defense.
The action of the accused was after the Court had held that the prosecution has establishment of a prima facie case against all four (4) accused persons.
According to the update, the Court said the mere filing of an appeal does not halt the ongoing trial.
Sumalia Abdul-Rahman, former CEO of the NDA; Stephen Yir-eru Engmen, former Deputy Chief Executive (Operations) of the NDA; Patrick Seidu, former Deputy Chief Executive (Finance & Administration) of the NDA; and Andrew Kuundaari, CEO of A&QS Consortium Limited are facing 11 counts of procurement breaches and corruption in the award and execution of contracts for the NDA.
Background
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) charged the four after investigations following a whistleblower’s alert. The investigative report revealed that Abdul-Rahman, Engmen, Seidu, and Kuundaari influenced the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage to A&QS in the procurement for consultants by the NDA under the Infrastructure for Poverty (IPEP) project by increasing the approved procurement total contract sum. It also detected that submission of invoices for the inflated contract sum was deceptive.
Source: Kasapafmonline.com/Murtala Inusah