An Accra High Court has set December 16, 2021 to determine the mode in which evidence of witnesses in the GH¢66m trial of former Director General of Social Security and National Insurance Trust Fund (SSNIT), Ernest Thompson and four others would be taken.
The court, presided over by Justice Henry Anthony Kwofie, a court of appeal judge sitting as an additional high court judge, would determine whether to take oral evidence from prosecution witnesses or admit witness statements, so that the defence lawyers can then do their cross examinations straightaway once proceedings start.
While the prosecution insists on tendering the statements of their witnesses and other attached exhibits, the defence lawyers also insist that the witnesses must be in the box so that they can assess their ‘demeanour’.
Abednego Tetteh Mensah, who represented Ernest Thompson, had indicated that they want the witnesses to come into the box.
Annis Moghtar Mohayideen, counsel for John Hagan Mensah, argued that what was stated in the Practice Direction was subject to agreement by both defence counsel and the prosecution.
He was of the view that the accused persons needed to be given all that they needed to defend themselves.
Paa Kwesi Abaidoo, counsel for Caleb Kweku Afaglo, wanted to see one Mary Negetey, a prosecution witness, who he said, at all material times, was a subordinate of a superior who had dealt with his client.
According to Mr. Abaidoo, his client never dealt with the said Ms. Negetey, and said “we want to see her and confront her with some of the things she had stated on paper.”
Prosecution Disagrees
Richard Gyambiby, a Principal State Attorney (PSA), argued that no harm would be done to the accused persons if witness statements were allowed as evidence-in-chief.
He said it would be a complete waste of time for the witnesses to come and state what they had already written and that it would defeat the objectives of fair trial, which the court, was supposed to uphold.
He argued that the Practice Direction on criminal trials only acted as a guideline, therefore, a judge considering a matter could use his or discretion in favour of a fair trial.
Mr. Gyambiby cited Section 69 of the Evidence Act, and stated that it lied in the bosom of the judge to order the mode, manner and order, of how a trial should be done or conducted.
He further stated that the overriding objective of a criminal trial was to ensure efficient and expeditious trial, arguing that the accused persons’ lawyers had not been able to tell the court they would suffer any miscarriage of justice.
More Documents
Mr. Gyambiby later informed the court during case management conference that they have provided the accused persons with sets of the further documents that they requested, and indicated that one particular document they requested did not exist as ordered by the court.
He said the documents were filed on November 24 and 26, this year.
Main Trial
Apart from the Ex-SSNIT boss, then General Manager of Management Information Systems at SSNIT, Caleb Kwaku Afaglo, then General Counsel of SSNIT, Peter Hayibor, as well as John Hagan Mensah, Information Technology Infrastructure Manager of SSNIT and Juliet Hassana Kramer are on trial on charges generally relating to alleged payments made under the Operational Business Suite project which the prosecution said had already been paid for under the controversial OBS contract.
The five 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).
Detailed Charges
Per the new charges as signed by the DPP, the ex-SSNIT boss Ernest 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.”
Change of Order
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 Science in Computer Studies from Georgia Institute of Technology.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak