Four former Northern Development Authority officials convicted over procurement corruption

A High Court in Tamale has convicted three former executives of the Northern Development Authority (NDA) and a private businessman of seven counts of corruption and corruption-related offences involving procurement contracts under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP).

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), in a statement issued on Friday, October 23, 2026, identified the convicts as former NDA Chief Executive, Sumaila Abdul-Rahman; former Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Operations, Stephen Yir-Eru Engmen; former Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Finance and Administration, Patrick Seidu; and Andrew Kuundaari, Chief Executive of A&QS Consortium Limited.

The offences include conspiracy to influence the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a contract, directly or indirectly influencing the procurement process for an unfair advantage, corruption by a public officer and corruption of a public officer.

The contracts in question were awarded under the government's Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme.

According to the OSP, the prosecution followed investigations initiated after a complaint was filed by legal practitioner Martin Kpebu.

Although the four were convicted, the court declined to impose custodial sentences, citing their advanced ages and the OSP’s swift intervention to prevent unlawful payments under the contracts.

The court noted that the intervention meant no financial loss was caused to the Republic.

Instead, it imposed a penalty of 1,000 penalty units for each count.

The OSP reaffirmed its commitment to protecting public funds and holding public officials and their collaborators in the private sector accountable for corruption and related offences.