<<Print>>Four persons, including the former Director General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Ernest Thompson, have been charged for allegedly causing financial loss to the state following the Economic and Organised Crimes Office’s (EOCO) investigations into the $72 million SSNIT software scandal.
Mr. Thompson and four other persons had initially been arrested by EOCO after an audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers Ghana indicted them.
The five are; the former Head of IT Department, Caleb Kwaku Afaglo; former OBS project manager; John Hagan Mensah, one Thomas Samson Owusu and Juliet Hasana Kramah, the CEO of IT company, Perfect Business Systems.
Addressing the media, the Trust’s Secretary, Gifty Annan, said: “however, four of them have been cautioned. These include Ernest Thompson, Mrs. Juliet Hassana Kramah, John Hagan Mensah and Caleb Kweku Afaglo. After investigations, the office [EOCO] proffered charges of willfully causing financial loss to the state against these suspects.”
Four to face AG
Also speaking to the media, the Chairman of the board of SSNIT, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor, the four “are going to the Attorney General’s office maybe today [Wednesday].”He assured further that SSNIT was going to be transparent in the matter, and that they will not shield anybody.
“This document is from EOCO; we are not pushing anything under the carpet. We are working very seriously… don’t think SSNIT is conniving with anybody,” Dr Addo Kufuor said.
The Trust had been widely lambasted over the project which is reportedly not fully functional.
The project included the installation of software to ensure that its headquarters received data directly from all of its offices.
15 witnesses appeared before EOCO
Mr. Addo Kufuor, in an with Citi News in August 2017 confirmed that about 15 people appeared before EOCO as witnesses in the matter.
SSNIT also contracted PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct an audit of the contract.
In a 4-point statement released in 2017, “SSNIT said it expects the names of the people associated with the I.T (OBS) contracts to be released shortly.”
SSNIT further assured that it would publish findings from the audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers into the matter.
Fake MIS boss
Amidst the controversy, it emerged that the General Manager of MIS at SSNIT, Caleb Afaglo, who was appointed to the position in 2015, did not hold the right qualifications.
He was interdicted by the management of the Trust over suspicions that his Bachelors’, Masters’ and Doctorate degrees were fake.
EOCO conducted raids in his house, seized his passport and froze his bank account to commence investigations into his qualifications. EOCO also reportedly interrogated members of Mr Afaglo’s household and confiscated some documents belonging to him.
The Management of SSNIT subsequently said it was entirely convinced that the degrees were fake and had therefore taken the decision to sack Mr Afaglo.
Mr Afaglo’s CV indicates that he acquired his BSC and MBA from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a PhD from the Kennedy Western University, which was an affiliate of the University of Cincinnati until it was closed down in 2011.