Godson Kwadzo Ladzekpo, the General Manager of Management Information Systems at SSNIT, who is the first prosecution witness, opted to swear to give his evidence by affirmation, instead of swearing by the bible which many had expected him to.
The SSNIT official, has become the first prosecution witness because of the Attorney General’s decision to amend some of the 29 charges slapped on the former SSNIT boss and the other former employees of the trust, as well as Juliet Hassana Kramer, a private businesswoman.
Aside the surprise from Mr Ladzekpo, who was led in evidence by Mrs. Yvonne Atakora Obuobisah, the Director of Public Prosecution, there was no much done on the day as his evidence was truncated due to an unbearable heat in the courtroom because the central air condition has not been functioning for some time now.
This forced the judge who was equally suffering to remark “the courtroom is like an oven….”
Mr Samuel Cudjoe, one of the counsels of Ernest Thompson, ex-Managing Director of SSNIT, raised questions, as to why the witness they had all agreed to appear and testify in the case at the last sitting, had been changed.
Originally, one Mary Negatey, was billed to mount the witness box to testify for the State. The DPP informed the court that Ms. Negatey was not available, hence the change.
Mr Cudjoe’s case was that he had prepared and read over Negatey’s witness statement, and he had studied all the documents she would be tendering.
However, when the case was called, it was Mr Ladzekpo, who mounted the witness box.
The DPP in her response, indicated to the court presided over by Mr Justice Henry Kwofie, that the State had last week, called all lawyers except that of Peter Hayibor and informed them about the changes.
She was of the opinion that, the witness statements had been filed since last year and that they had all gone through all of them.
Although, the trial judge expressed same sentiments of defense counsel on the changes made in respect of the witness, he (Judge) allowed Mr Ladzekpo to mount the box, and he read out his witness statement to him.
Mr Ladzekpo, had his witness statement admitted in evidence.
The first prosecution witness, also tendered into evidence such as the Tender document for the procurement of the OBS, a tender evaluation report and some e-mail correspondence from Juliet Hassana Kramer.
He also tendered lists of amendments made to the tender document for the OBS. The accused persons indicted in the SSNIT $66 million scandal are: Mr. Thompson, John Hagan Mensah, former Information Manager of SSNIT, Juliet Hassan Kramer, Chief Executive Officer of Perfect Business Consult, Caleb Kwaku Afaglo, former Head of Management Information Systems, SSNIT and Peter Hayibor, a lawyer at SSNIT.
The five accused persons are being tried over the $66million SSNIT Operational Business Suite (OBS project), which was meant to revamp the operations of SSNIT through Information Communications Technology.
The accused persons have denied the various charges -conspiracy to wilfully cause financial loss to the state and wilfully causing financial loss to the state. Thompson and Kramer are being held jointly over three counts of contravening the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).
Afaglo and Kramer, are also facing a charge of defrauding by false pretences.
Afaglo has been accused again of securing his employment at SSNIT with fake certificates, and he is also said to have possessed forged documents and altered the said forged certificates.
Mr Thompson, John Hagan Mensah, Juliet Hassana Kramer and the others, have all pleaded not guilty to the charges, which relate to conspiracy to commit crime and willfully causing financial loss to the state, and are on bail.
Last year’s amendments which affected counts 11 and 12 of the 29 charges led to the Accra High Court the presided, Justice Henry Anthony Kwoffie, to last year, re-take the plea of Mr. Thompson, and the others, for causing financial loss to the state.
The discomfort in the courtroom left the trial judge fuming although he was the only one provided with a standing fan leaving other court users including lawyers and state prosecutors to bear the brunt.
In the course of the trial, Justice Henry Anthony Kwoffie, invited officers in charge of the facility to ascertain, why the air conditioners were not working.
“The courtroom is like an oven. What are you doing about it?” Justice Kwoffie, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court judge asked.
Two officers from the Court Manager’s office told the court that, a request has been made to have them fixed since last year, but it was only two weeks ago, that the Judicial Secretary released money for the offshore materials to be purchased.
The officer in charge of ensuring the air conditioners are fixed, told the court that, it will take about one and half months to have them fixed, adding that, the purchase is being done from China, but if it was Ghana, it would have been easier.
The Director of Public Prosecution, requested for at least two fans to help the situation.
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).
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 Mr 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, 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 allegedly 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.
