SSNIT scandal: We won’t rush to comment – Minority

The Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu has said the minority will speak on the scandal at SSNIT after carefully considering all the issues involved.

The minority has been criticised over their silence at the rot at the pension scheme which has seen over $70 million of taxpayer’s money gone waste in an attempt to install an OBS software for its operations across the country.

Commenting on the matter at a press conference in Accra Tuesday, Mr. Iddrisu said the minority has met over the issue and are seeking expert views in order to inform their reaction.

“In fact last week, there was a meeting on the particular subject. … We don’t just want to talk as a Minority, I need expert advice. We are studying; we don’t want to be a Minority that just rushes to say.

“Don’t forget that myself I was the Minister who oversaw pensions and I do have a position on the prudent management of pension resources. At the appropriate time when I’m satisfied with the details, we would address the public on this and many issues,” the Tamale South MP said.

SSNIT settled for the $72 million OBS software to automate all the core processes in the administration of pension although it received tenders to undertake the project at much cheaper prices including $9 million.

A document on the deal indicates that the eventual winner of the contract bid produced a tender price of $27,610,792 but that was reviewed to 34, 011,914.21 after the General Services Manager of SSNIT identified arithmetic errors in the tender of the eventual winner, Perfect Business Systems, and Silverlake Consortium.

Perfect Business Systems and Silverlake Consortium was chosen out of the total of 10 companies and joint venture responded to the tender by the October 19, 2011, deadline.

Perfect Business System’s $34million was almost nine times the amount presented by Persol Systems, about $4million.

Sambus Company Limited presented the second least bid price of $9.8 million.

After the deal between SSNIT and Perfect Business Systems and Silverlake Consortium was sealed in 2012, the cost of the project increased by about $32million.

The increase was attributed to the procurement of additional equipment including servers and flash drivers and headsets.