Ernest Thompson
The Attorney General’s Department has indicated that it will, within a week, file an amended charge of causing financial loss to the state against the former Director General of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Ernest Thompson, for the part he allegedly played in the Operational Business Suite (OBS) Contract of the Trust, during his tenure of office.
The amendment was necessitated by the decision of the Supreme Court to uphold the ruling of the Court of Appeal, which struck out the charges for not meeting the threshold of Article 19 Clause 2(d) of the 1992 Constitution.
Financial Loss
Ernest Thompson was charged, among other things, with “causing financial loss to the State,” in 2019 or thereabouts.
He, however, insisted that the AG’s Department did not include the particulars he would need to defend himself with respect to the charge of “causing financial loss to the state,” and subsequently challenged that action at the Court of Appeal and got a two to one decision in his favour.
The AG’s Department was not satisfied with the decision of the Court of Appeal and went to the Supreme Court to challenge the appellate court’s action.
A five-member Panel of the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision had upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, which had struck out the charges of “causing financial loss to the State” preferred against Mr. Thompson and ordered the AG to include those particulars, so as to enable the ex-SSNIT Boss to adequately prepare his defence.
The panel, presided over by Justice Yaw Appau, and assisted by justices Agnes Dordzie, Lovelace Johnson, Gertrude Torkornoo and Umoro Tanko Amadu, had held that the charges levelled against Mr. Thompson did not meet the requirements of Article 19 Clause 2(d) of the 1992 Constitution.
Court Appearance
When the case resumed at the High Court in Accra yesterday, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mrs. Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, stated that the AG’s Department only got a copy of the Supreme Court’s judgement in the afternoon of the previous day and had just taken a look at it.
She therefore, prayed for a two-week adjournment, indicating that they would file the amended charges in a week and the accused persons could also use the other week to have a look at the new charges.
“We obtained a judgment of the Supreme Court just yesterday (Wednesday) in the afternoon. We have looked at it and we are now amending the charges on causing financial loss to the state. If we can be given two weeks, I am sure we can file within a week and we can appear before you the subsequent week,” the DPP stated.
Samuel Codjoe, counsel for Mr. Thompson, told the court that they had also just received the judgment of the Supreme Court, and since they would need adequate time to study the new charges, the two weeks suggested by the DPP was too short.
The court presided over by Justice Anthony Kwofi, a Court of Appeal judge sitting with additional responsibilities as a High Court judge after conferring with the parties in the case agreed on April 22, 2021 for the resumption of the case.
Main Trial
Mr. Thompson and two former Management Members of SSNIT and a private Businesswoman are being accused of “causing financial loss to the State” in the award of a controversial and failed $72 million IT project, dubbed the Operational Business Suite (OBS).
Caleb Kwaku Afaglo, the then General Manager of Management Information Systems at the SSNIT, and Peter Hayibor, the then General Counsel of SSNIT, as well as a business woman, Juliet Hassana Krama, CEO of Perfect Business Solutions (PBS) Limited, are the other accused persons.
They had been accused of inflating the contract sum of the OBS from $34,011,914.21 to $66,783,148.08, through what were termed variously as “change orders” and “variations.”
They had all pleaded not guilty to the charges.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak