According to a written complaint dated June 15, 2022, which was addressed to the Special Prosecutor by Martin Luther Kpebu, a private legal practitioner, requesting for an investigation into the operations of NDA and the actions of its Chief Executive and Board Chairman.
The report said: “The complaint alleged that NDA awarded a contract to A&QS Consortium Limited (hereafter, A&QS) on 28 January 2020 for consultancy services for the supervision of some constituencies in the Upper West Region under the IPEP for the contract sum of Five Million Seven Hundred and Twenty Thousand cedis (GHC5,720,000.00). However, upon the exit of the then Acting Chief Executive who executed the contract, the contract sum was illegally increased to Ten Million Four Hundred Thousand cedis (GHC10,400,000.00) by the removal of the page containing the original figure of Five Million Seven Hundred and Twenty Thousand cedis (GHC5,720,000.00) and its replacement at page 25 clause 33.1 of the contract with a fresh page containing the bloated figure of Ten Million Four Hundred Thousand cedis (GHC10,400,000.00) to make it appear as if it is the contract executed by the previous Acting Chief Executive,”.
According to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), after a thorough investigation conducted over a period of six months, engaging twenty persons over a period of four months he arrived at convincing conclusions.
The OSP said in the report that, its established that there were some major breaches in a contract that existed between the government organization and A&QS and Associate Beaver Consult for the implementation of NDA’s Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) at a contract sum of Twenty-Nine Million Six Hundred and Forty Thousand cedis (GHC29,640,000.00).
“There appeared to be a framework document which had the signatures of Dr. Haroun and the Chief Executive of A&QS, Mr. Andrew Kuundaari. However, the signatures were not witnessed. Then again, the document had no deliverables on the nature of the work to be performed by A&QS. It had no contract sum and it had neither a commencement date nor a date for the contract period. Mr. Kuundaari did not read the framework document and he did not know its contents since it had always remained in the custody of Mr. Stephen Yir-eru Engmen, the Deputy Chief Executive of NDA in charge of Operations.
“It was evident and clear to every relevant person that no contract had been signed between NDA and A&QS at the time of Dr. Haroun’s departure. However, Mr. Kuundaari and Mr. Engmen would subsequently point to the framework document in an attempt to justify their actions,” the report stated.
In its conclusion, the OSP report stated that it had directed the Controller and Accountant General to freeze payments to A&QS.
However, the OSP has further directed for the criminal prosecutions of the CEO, Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, and his two deputies
Read the full report below:
Investigation Report – Northern Development Authority and A&QS Consortium Limited
Source: Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana
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