The Attorney General Tables 105 Documents in the Case of a Former Head of SSNIT

General News on Thursday, March 14, 2019

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com

2019-03-14

The Attorney General's Office has filed 105 additional documents as part of "revelations" in the trial of former Executive Director of the Social Security and National Insurance Fund (SSNIT), Ernest Thompson, and four other people accused of causing a financial loss in the state.

This follows a request from Samuel Codjoe, a former SSNIT chief attorney to the Attorney General, to file the documents, considering that they are essential for the defense of his client.

On January 23, 2019, the Attorney General had already filed 127 documents and pen disks with documents on which he intended to rely for the trial of the five accused before a second request from the attorney defense intervened.

The new documents that were filed at the Registry of the Accra High Court Criminal Division on February 12 and 15, 2019 included the minutes of the SSNIT Operational Suite Committee, as well as other documents. requested by the defense lawyer.

Yvonne Attakora-Obuobisa, Director of Public Prosecutions, testified in court that her office had "substantially" provided the court and the accused with the requested documents.

She said, however, that "there is only very little material left to be said to the accused" stating: "In our communication with the SSNIT, they told us that they could not find what was left. They have no documents of this type in their possession, so we asked them to write it officially so that it could be filed. "

Mr. Codjoe confirmed to the court that he had received the requested documents, but some 29 other documents were pending.

The trial judge, Judge Henry Anthony Kwofie, a judge of the Court of Appeal then asked Mr. Codjoe if he had any of these documents in his possession, but he did not know what he was saying. lawyer said that he should check with his client.

He stated that it was essential that these documents be disclosed because of precedents in the trial of Dr. Stephen Opuni and the former Chairman of the National Communications Authority (NCA) Board of Directors, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, and four other people in which the DPP opposes "other sources" documents.

But the DPP opposed this comment by stating that "we have an obligation to clbadify and disclose all the documents on which the prosecution intends to rely for the conduct of the case. We have filed all the documents on which we intend to rely for the trial ".

In the meantime, three defense lawyers filed undisclosed motions in the case, which would be filed on March 22, 2019.

Trial

Thompson and three former SSNIT executives and a private businesswoman were charged with causing a financial loss to the state when the $ 72 million controversial and unsuccessful computer project was awarded – Operational Business Suite (OBS).

The other defendants are John Hagan Mensah, Head of IT Infrastructure at SSNIT, Juliet Hbadana Krama, CEO of Perfect Business Solutions (PBS) Limited, OBS Operator, Caleb Kwaku Afaglo, General Manager of Business Information Systems at SSNIT. SSNIT and Peter. Hayibor, General Counsel of SSNIT.

They have been charged with raising the OBS contract amount from USD 34,011,914.21 to USD 66,783,148.88 through so-called various 'change orders' and changes ".

The five defendants face a total of 29 counts of indictment, including conspiracy to commit a crime, financial losses to the state, fraud under false pretenses, violation of the law on the authorities, as well as possession and creation of false documents.