Previous board approved SSNIT’s $66m software deal – Prof. Alabi

A former board Chairman of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust ( SSNIT ) Professor Joshua Alabi has distanced himself from the contract that procured a $66 million dollar software for the Trust.

The Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) is currently investigating five officials of SSNIT for their alleged involvement in the acquisition of a OBS software.

Reports say the software was to network all branches of SSNIT across the country to enable them to receive real time data directly to the headquarters in Accra and enhance efficiency.

According to Professor Joshua Alabi, the said contract was signed before his appointment and had clauses that literally prevented his board from reviewing the contract.

Speaking to Citi News on the development Prof. Alabi said his board queried the contract when their attention was drawn to it.

He said “what really happened was that…management went beyond the approved figure and brought it to the board for ratification and we queried it and this is in the minutes.”

“It was awarded before my board. The management went beyond the contract sum without recourse to the board; they came to the board for ratification and queried it. But then I really want to believe that the previous board really took into consideration the operations of SSNIT before awarding that contract. The management also explained to the board that there was some unforeseen expenditure that occurred and that is why they went beyond their contract sum but then we queried it because we said they should have brought it to the board for discussion and approval before awarding it,” Prof. Alabi added.

5 under investigation 
About 5 people are currently being investigated by the EOCO for their involvement in the acquisition of the software.

The Director General, Finance, Administration and MIS at SSNIT, Mr. Michael Addo explained that investigations would throw more light into the purchase of the software.

“SSNIT acquired a new operating system called OBS; it is designed to improve SSNIT's operating processes, to make if fast so that we can all network before then we had a hot spot of different systems that we were using. We did spend quite a little bit of money on that to acquire the software and the hardware,” he said.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin