The Northern Development Authority (NDA) has refuted the contents of some purported letters emanating from the authority to instruct contractors and suppliers of the government’s pro poor Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) to pay 5 percent of their contracts sum towards the campaign of the governing New Patriotic Party in the 7 December, 2020 general elections.
According to the NDA Director of Corporate Affairs and International Relations, Mr. Samson Salifu Danse, who signed the communiqué, the supposed letter was authored with the malicious intention to tarnish the image of the authority and it’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, Dr Alhassan Sulemana Anamzooya.
The NDA further noted the authoring of the fake letters and forgery of letterheard and stamp of NDA as well as the ill-conceived content suggesting fraud and unprofessionalism are strictly criminal and should be treated as such.
In view of this, the NDA in the statement copied to THE CUSTODIAN on Friday, 19 February, 2021, said it is rather unfortunate that a member of the Appointments Committee of Parliament who doubles as the Member of Parliament for the Tamale North constituency in the northern region would use the said letter in the ongoing vetting process without conducting due diligence to authenticate the veracity of the document.
He pointed out that the NDA is a statutory agency of state and as such is well aware of its mandate and professional functionality, and therefore, does not engage in any form of solicitation or fundraising for or on behalf of any political party in Ghana.
“The plethora of typographical, grammatical errors and plan logical inaccuracies also calls into doubt the authenticity of the letters. For instance, the Ag CEO supposedly wrote a letter addressed to himself (recipient address – 14 May, 2020 letter) and then, the said consultant by name Akamara received the same letter on 17th April, 2020 – one month before it was supposedly written” the statement explained.
Meanwhile, THE CUSTODIAN has learnt that the matter has been reported to the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to commence investigations to bring the perpetrators to book.
“We will like to assure the Parliament of Ghana and the general public to treat this attempt to tarnish the image of the authority with contempt even as we await the outcome of the Ghana Police Service investigation”
