A Tamale High Court presided over by His Lordship Justice Eric Ansah Ankomah has convicted the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Northern Development Authority (NDA), his two deputies, and another of 1,000 penalty units for each count or, in default, to serve four (4) years in jail.
The four, including Stephen Yir-Eru Engmen, a former Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Operations of the Northern Development Authority, Patrick Seidu, a former Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Finance and Administration of the Northern Development Authority and Andrew Kuundaari, the Chief Executive of A&QS Consortium Limited, a private entity, were found guilty of 7 out of the eleven counts by the court on Friday, October 23, 2026.
The Court declined to impose custodial sentences on the convicts, on the ground that they are of advanced age and that the OSP acted swiftly to prevent unlawful payments under the contract, so no loss was caused to the Republic.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) initiated and conducted the prosecution after investigating a complaint filed by legal practitioner Martin Kpebu.
Background
A contract alteration scandal hit the Northern Development Authority (NDA) in 2023, when a Gh¢5.7 million contract signed by the company’s then immediate-past CEO was ‘magically’ inflated long after the work was done and due for payment.
In a series of exposés, the then immediate-past CEO of NDA, Dr Alhassan Anamzoya, awarded a contract to a firm called A&QS Consortium while in office for ¢5,720,000, approved by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) under the government’s Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP).
On January 16, 2020, the PPA approved NDA, under Dr Anamzoya, to use single-source procurement to recruit consultancy services to implement the IPEP program in the amount of Gh¢5.7 million.
However, after Dr Anamzoya’s departure from NDA, the contract was allegedly ‘falsified’ with the forged signature of Dr. (Diazepam) Anamzoya, inflating the total contract sum to Gh¢10,400,000 instead of Gh¢5.7 million.
Despite the clear fraud and possible criminal repercussions, they made the payment, leaving only a fraction to be cleared.
