The Attorney General’s Department has filed 29 new charges against former Director General of Social Security and National Trust Fund (SSNIT), Ernest Thompson, and three other former employees of the Trust as well as a private business woman, for allegedly causing financial loss to the state.
The five accused persons are before the court for the various roles they allegedly played in the Operational Business Suite (OBS) Contract of the Trust between 2011 and 2017.
They include Ex-SSNIT Boss Ernest Thompson, Caleb Kwaku Afaglo, then General Manager of Management Information Systems at SSNIT, Peter Hayibor, then General Counsel of SSNIT as well as John Hagan Mensah, Information Technology Infrastructure Manager of SSNIT and private business woman Juliet Hassana Kramer.
New Charges
The filing of the new charges was in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court which upheld the ruling of the Court of Appeal to strike out the old charges against Mr. Thompson for not containing enough particulars which will aid the accused person to prepare his defense.
Appearing before an Accra High Court yesterday, Richard Gyambiby, a Senior State Attorney led by Frances Mullen Ansah, told the court that the prosecution filed the new charges on Tuesday, April 20, 2021 pursuant to the orders of the Supreme Court.
The defense lawyers however, told the court that they had not been served with the documents and had no idea what the new charges are and whether the AG’s Department actually complied with the orders of the Supreme Court.
The court, presided over by Justice Henry Kwofi, a court of appeal judge sitting as an additional high court judge, then sent for the bailiff of the court who then served all the lawyers of the accused persons in the courtroom with the new charges preferred against their clients.
New Charges
The accused persons are facing 29 counts of conspiracy, willfully causing financial loss to the Republic, defrauding by false pretences as well as the contravention of Public Procurement Act contrary to Section 92(2)(a) of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).
The charges generally related to payments made under the Operational Business Suite project which had already been paid for under the controversial Operational Business Suite contract.
Caleb Afaglo is separately facing six (6) counts of possession of forged documents and altering forged document contrary to Section 169 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).
Per the new charges as signed bythe Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, the ex-SSNIT Boss Mr. Thompson, John Hagan Mensah, Juliet Hassana Kramer, and Caleb Afaglo have been charged with 18 counts of willfully causing financial loss of $14,803,299.5 to the state between September 2013 and April 2016.
The charge sheet indicated that Ernest Thompson, John Hagan Mensah, Juliet Hassana Kramer and Caleb Afaglo between December 2015 and April 2016 caused a financial loss of $5,465,909.14 to the state by causing payment to be made under “Change Order 7 for the purchase of IBM advanced hardware (2 Enterprise Class IBM Power8 E870, 2 Clustered V9000 flash systems, 1 V9000 system for disaster) recovery for Operational Business Suite project when same had already been paid under the Operational Business Suite Contract.”
Mr. Thompson, Mrs. Kramer and Peter Hayibor are also facing a charge of willfully causing a financial loss of $5,141,905.66 to the state by back-dating the warranty and Service Level Agreement of the Operational Business Suite project between January and September 2016.
Again, Ernest Thompson, John Hagan Mensah and Juliet Hassana Kramer have been accused of willfully causing financial loss of $2,292,048.23 to the state when they caused payment to be made “under Change Order 2 for the upgrade of hardware for the Operational Business Suite project when same had already been paid under the Operational Business Suite contract.
More Charges
The three have also been accused of having between October 2013 and April 2014 causing financial loss of $1,079,334 to the state when they caused payments to be made under “Change Order 3 for digitisation of existing member records for the Operational Business Suite project when same had been already paid under the Operational Business Suite Contract.
Further charges indicate that Mr. Thompson, Mr. Mensah and Mrs. Kramer between June 2014 and January 2015, willfully caused financial loss of $100,895.70 to the state by causing payment to be made on invoice presented by Mrs. Kramer for the procurement of hardware related to member registration and re-registration exercises for the Operational Business Suite project when same had already been paid for under the Operational Business Suite Contract.
The three again are accused of having between August 2015 and September 2015 willfully causing financial loss of $502,227.00 to the state by causing payments to be made on invoice presented by Mrs. Kramer under Change Order B for the supply and installation of 45 Fujitsu Fi-6770 and Fi-6800 scanners for the Operational Business Suite project when same had already been paid for under the Operational Business Suite contract.
Perfect Business System
Juliet Hassana Kramer is also facing charges of having between October 2011 and May 2017 defrauding SSNIT of the sum of $66,783,148.08 under a contract to Perfect Business Systems (PBS) Limited, a non-existent company and Silverlake Structured Services by representing that she was the Chief Executive Officer of PBS and Silverlake, authorised to sign on behalf of Silverlake, the tenderer of the OBS contract.
Mr. Thompson is also facing a charge of contravening the PPA Act by approving the sum of $9,536,652.50 for “Change Request for the Operational Business Suite Project, an amount which is above the threshold of the head of the entity.”
Forged Certificate
Caleb Afaglo is facing charges of possession and altering of forged Bachelor of Sciences in Computer Studies from Georgia Institute of Technology.
The case has been adjourned to May 20, 2021 when the plea of the accused persons is likely to be taken.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak
