SSNIT IT Boss hot over fake certificates

Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has interdicted head of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Management Information Systems, Dr. Caleb Afaglo, for presenting fake documents for the top job. A probe by the anti-graft agency revealed that Dr. Afaglo did not have a doctorate degree as he claimed.

He neither has a masters’ degree nor a first degree, EOCO revealed.

The interdiction comes at a time that there is massive disaffection for the Trust following the revelation that it spent $72 million to procure a faulty software from 2012 to 2016.

The contract, awarded in 2012, was to replace the manual nature of work at the Trust with complete automation.

It was to provide superior services to SSNIT customers, reduce member enrollment cycle through forms, provide effective reporting solution, achieve real time processing of contribution reports and reduce benefit processing time.

The initial contract sum was $34 million but the Trust ended up spending more within the period of four years.

EOCO uncovered the fake documents during investigation into Dr. Afaglo’s crucial role in awarding the controversial $72 million digitisation contract.

Dr. Afaglo was selected as the General Manager of the MIS because of his ‘impeccable’ credentials.

He was responsible for the implementation of phases one and two of the Operational Business Suite (OBS).

EOCO did not get much information about him except his former working places which were GLICO Insurance, telco giant, MTN, and Dominion University, where he was Head of the IT Department.

He was allegedly sacked in the above three organisations for presenting fake documents, the anti-graft agency said.

Sources at EOCO said authorities at the Dominion University uncovered the fraud after they applied for an accreditation at National Accreditation Board.

Meanwhile, the company that submitted the lowest bid for the contract, Persol Limited, has refuted claims advanced for rejecting its proposal.

SSNIT had said the company met all the criteria but one criterion which is the absence of a signature of the power of attorney.

But Persol Boss, Michael Quarshie, on Joy FM in Accra yesterday insisted they provided all the required documents.

“[Our proposal] had a power of attorney submitted, it had the name of the person whom we were giving the power of attorney to [and] it had the director of the company,” he said.