Former SSNIT boss Ernest Thompson and four others plead not guilty
A former SSNIT boss and four others have denied any wrongdoing in the Operational Business Suite (OBS) project that caused the state a $14.8 million loss.
Mr Ernest Thompson, John Hagan Mensah, Juliet Hassana Kramer, Caleb Kwaku Afaglo and Peter Hayibor, pleaded not guilty on Thursday, May 20, at the Accra High Court.
This is the second time the accused persons have been arraigned over the same case.
They were initially dragged to court in July 2018, but the trial was put on hold after the legal team for Mr Thompson argued that state prosecution did not have sufficient particulars to support the charges.
State prosecution, on the other hand, insisted that the particulars of the offences contain adequate information.
After the back and forth at the High Court, the prosecution team took the matter to the apex court of the land on March 17.
The five-member panel presided by Yaw Appau dismissed the appeal brought against the former SSNIT boss.
It said the charges preferred against the five accused persons did not meet the constitutional requirement.
Because of the ruling by the apex court, the Attorney-General dragged the accused persons back to court by amending the charge sheet to include sufficient particulars.
The 10 counts amended with further particulars related to willfully causing financial loss to the state.
The former SSNIT boss, John Hagan Mensah, Juliet Hassana Kramer, and Peter Hayibor, have been charged with willfully causing financial loss to the state to the tune of $14.8 million.
While Caleb Kwaku Afaglo is facing charges relating to forged documents and possession of forged documents.
Lawyers of the accused persons informed the court they are yet to be served with the new charge sheet.
The genesis of the problem
The former SSNIT boss Ernest Thompson and four others have been accused of causing a financial loss of more than $14.8 million in the SSNIT Operational Business Suite (OBS) project.
The four other accused are Mr John Hagan Mensah, a former Information Technology (IT) Manager at SSNIT; Ms Juliet Hassana Kramer, the Chief Executive Officer of Perfect Business Systems (PBS); Mr Caleb Kwaku Afaglo, a former Head of Management Information Systems (MIS) at SSNIT; and Mr Peter Hayibor, the lawyer for SSNIT.
The offences levelled against Mr Thompson and the other accused persons include wilfully causing financial loss to the state, conspiracy to commit a crime, defrauding by false pretence in contravention of the public procurement act, and authoring forged documents.
In June 2010, SSNIT initiated the $34 million OBS project to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to revamp its operations to provide a state-of-the-art pension administration system.
Per the facts, between September 2013 and September 2016, the five accused persons engaged in various illegalities that caused financial loss to the state concerning the said project.
The contract sum, the prosecution said, also ballooned from $34 million to over $66 million, even though the OBS system failed to perform efficiently as the project contract had envisaged.