I’m not aware of one-sided PwC audit – Ernest Thompson

Lawyers for embattled former Director General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Ernest Thompson say their client was not engaged in any investigations widely-reported to be the basis for his indictment in causing financial loss to the state vis a vis the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) scandal.

Some four officials of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) including the former Director General, Ernest Thompson have been charged with willfully causing financial loss to the state.

Their indictment is as a result of an investigation by EOCO on the procurement of an ICT Software costing $72 million.

The four were arrested on Wednesday morning, on the heels of an audit undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers Ghana, which indicted them following the murky issues from the $72 million spent by SSNIT on Operational Business Suite (OBS) in a bid to digitize the Trust.

Chairman of the board of SSNIT, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor told a news conference Wednesday “Four people from SSNIT have been indicted and they are going to the Attorney General’s office maybe today,”

But his Lawyers say Thompson is not in the know of any audit into his tenure by PriceWaterHouse.

In a statement from his Lawyers and sighted by Kasapafmonline.com said: “Our client is unaware of any audit or investigations by Pricewaterhouse. We say this on authority because it would seem strange that an audit could be conducted over a period of several months and report released without any hearing given to our client by PWC to state his side of the case. PWC never met our client before finalizing its report.”

Nonetheless, the statement also complained about their client being unjustifiably hounded by management of SSNIT in the media.

“It is to be noted that the management of SSNIT which claims to be the complainant continues to persecute our client in the print and electronic media with press conferences and releases with the least opportunity without any regard to the evidence and facts adduced before the investigators at EOCO”