SSNIT IT boss sacked

Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has sacked its General Manager for Management Information Systems (MIS), ‘Dr’ Caleb Afaglo, for securing a job at the Trust with alleged fake degrees.

In a statement released yesterday, SSNIT said that “evidence made available to the Trust indicates that the university degrees presented by ‘Dr’ Afaglo to secure his employment at the Trust are fake.”

The dismissed Head of SSNIT’s Management Information Systems, ‘Dr’ Afaglo, last Monday defended his academic credentials, insisting that he obtained his PhD certificate genuinely.

The Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) interdicted ‘Dr’ Afaglo for presenting fake documents for the top job.

According to the anti-graft agency, its investigation revealed that ‘Dr’ Afaglo did not have a doctorate degree as he claimed.

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

EOCO interdicted ‘Dr’ Afaglo over claims that his certificates were fake, and therefore he did not deserve his position at SSNIT.

“This is not my first job, so there is absolutely no truth in it right? None whatsoever. My PHD University closed down in 2011, how is that my fault. And how does that make the degree a fake one when I graduated in 2007,” he posted on his Facebook wall.

The interdiction comes at a time there is public 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 automate processes at the Trust.

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 fraud during investigations into ‘Dr’ Afaglo’s crucial role in the controversial $72 million digitisation contract.

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

He was employed in 2015 after phases one and two of the Operational Business Suite (OBS) had been implemented.

Prior to his appointment at SSNIT, ‘Dr’ Afaglo had worked as IT consultant for the Trust, National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), and at MTN Ghana and Action Chapel International as the Data Services Supervising Engineer.

He had also served as the head of IT department at SIMNET GHANA and Dominion University. He was also a consultant at GLICO Insurance.

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

Sources say authorities at the Dominion University found out about the fake documents after they applied for an accreditation from the 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 said the company met all but one of the criteria, which was the absence of a signature from the person given the power of attorney.

But Persol Boss, Michael Quarshie, told Joy FM on Monday, August 28, 2017 that they provided all the required documents directed by SSNIT.

“[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.