The High Court in Accra has officially acquitted and discharged Dr. Ernest Thompson, former Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), and two others of allegations related to causing financial loss in the $66 million SSNIT OBS project.
This decision follows the Office of the Attorney General’s notice to withdraw charges on February 7, 2025.
The three acquitted individuals are Dr. Ernest Thompson, former Director-General of SSNIT; John Hagan Mensah, former IT Manager at SSNIT; and Peter Hayibor, former General Manager and General Counsel of SSNIT.
They join Juliet Hassana Kramer, the CEO of Perfect Business Systems (PBS), who was previously set free by the Court during the submission of no case to answer.
They were all initially charged with a combined 29 counts related to the $66 million SSNIT OBS project, which was intended to revamp SSNIT’s operations through Information and Communications Technology (ICT), until the withdrawal was filed on February 7, 2025.
On February 20, 2025, Maame Efua Osei Gyamera, an Assistant State Attorney, informed the Court that, “pursuant to the Notice of Withdrawal filed on the 7th of February, 2025, and on the instructions of the Attorney General, I pray that the charges or offences against the 1st (Dr. Ernest Thompson), 2nd (Mr. John Hagan Mensah), and 5th (Mr. Peter Hayibor) accused persons are withdrawn pursuant to Sections 59 (1), (2) (b) (i) and (5) of Act 30. Humbly submitted.”
Counsel for Ernest Thompson, John Mensah Hagan, and Peter Hayibor did not object to the withdrawal notice by the Attorney General.
Acquittal
The presiding judge, Justice Henry Anthony Kwofie, a Justice of the Supreme Court sitting as an additional High Court judge, acquitted and discharged them.
“On the 7th of February, 2025, the Attorney General filed a Notice of Withdrawal of all offences against the 1st, 2nd, and 5th accused persons under Section 59 (1), (2), (b) (i) and (5) of the Criminal and Other Offences Procedure Act, 1960.
“The effect of this position, having regard to the fact that the prosecution has closed its case, is that by Section 59 (2), (b), (i), the accused persons ought to be acquitted in respect of the offences for which they are charged.
“Accordingly, the 1st, 2nd, and 5th accused persons (Dr. Ernest Thompson, John Mensah Hagan, and Peter Hayibor, respectively) are hereby acquitted and discharged in respect of Counts 17 and 18 of the charges,” the Court ruled.
EIB Network’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, Murtala Inusah, reports that, as of the time the AG filed the notice of withdrawal on February 7, 2025, the Court had acquitted and discharged them on most of the 29 counts on December 3, 2024, except Count 17 – Conspiracy and Count 18 – Wilfully causing financial loss to the Republic contrary to Section 179(3) (a) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).
Plea Bargaining
Meanwhile, on Thursday, March 13, the Court was informed that the 4th accused person, Caleb Kwaku Afaglo, a former Head of Management Information Systems, has submitted a request for Plea Bargaining.
He is facing seven counts, which include defrauding by false pretense and three counts each of possession of forged documents and uttering forged documents.
Defence lawyer George Bernard Shaw said, “The defence has commenced Plea Bargaining negotiations with the Attorney General.”
In light of that, “We are formally notifying this court of that course of action and pray that, in accordance with the Plea Bargaining Act, with Section 162(5), Your Lordship grants us the 30 days within which to conclude the plea negotiations,” Counsel informed the Court.
Confirmation
Senior State Attorney Nana Ama Adinkra confirmed to the Court that the Prosecution has received the proposal for negotiations and prayed for a 30-day adjournment to discuss the proposal.
“The Prosecution has received from the Counsel of the accused person a letter stating their intent to enter into Plea Bargaining with us.
“The right thing to do is to formally inform the Court of their intention to engage in Plea Bargaining, which I believe is what they have done this afternoon (Thursday, March 13). Subject to Your Lordship’s convenience, we request an adjournment not exceeding 30 days while we explore the possibility of reaching an agreement,” she said.
Justice Anthony Kwofie stated, “Having regard to the application made by Counsel for the accused and the response by the Prosecution, I will, in light of the Plea Bargaining Act, grant the accused person an adjournment to enable negotiations to proceed.”
The case, which initially included 29 counts related to the $66 million SSNIT OBS project, has been adjourned to May 8, 2025.
Background
The SSNIT OBS project aimed to revamp SSNIT’s operations through Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
However, the project’s contract sum allegedly ballooned from $34 million to $66 million, and the system failed to perform efficiently.
The Prosecution alleged that Thompson, Kramer, and Afaglo caused SSNIT to pay additional money for items already covered by the contract.
Brief facts
The facts leading to the institution of the criminal action were largely captured in the narration of the Attorney General to the Court after the plea of the accused persons was taken on May 20, 2021.
The material facts are as follows:
A1 was the Director-General of SSNIT between May 2013 and January 2017.
A2 was the Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure Manager of SSNIT until his appointment as the Operational Business Suite (OBS) Project Manager in December 2012.
A3 was the CEO of PBS.
A4 was the General Manager of MIS at SSNIT between October 2015 and January 2017.
A5 was the General Counsel of SSNIT.
In June 2010, SSNIT developed an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Strategic Plan to reflect changes in its operational processes and align with trends in the ICT industry.
The plan envisioned the development and implementation of a new software solution known as the Operational Business Suite (OBS) to provide a state-of-the-art pension administration system on a turnkey basis for SSNIT.
SSNIT advertised for international competitive bidding for the development and implementation of the project.
Although an entity known as Perfect Business Systems Limited (PBS) did not participate in the bidding, on November 15, 2012, the contract was awarded jointly to Silverlake, a Malaysian IT solutions provider, and PBS, purportedly as a consortium, at a contract sum of $34,011,914.21, inclusive of 14% contingency and 17% Value Added Tax.
The objective of the project was to automate all core processes in pension administration and integrate all internal systems as well as external stakeholders of SSNIT.
The contract, which covered the head office and 55 area and branch offices, was to be completed within 18 months.
Despite these provisions, payments were allegedly made for items already covered by the contract sum, inflating the cost to $66,783,148.08 through “Change Orders” and “Variations.”
Investigations revealed that PBS was a non-existent company and that the OBS system was not functioning efficiently despite the increased payments.
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