$66m SSNIT rot: My hands are clean – Alabi

Former Board Chair of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Prof Joshua Alabi has said his board queried an inherited $66million software contract approved by a predecessor board because the management went beyond the approved figure.

The Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) is currently investigating five former officials of SSNIT in connection with alleged financial malfeasance relating to the procurement of the amount involved in the procurement of the BOS software by SSNIT.

According to current Board Chairman of SSNIT, Kwame Addo Kufuor, some 15 more officers have also been invited to assist in investigating corrupt activities at the pension scheme.

Mr Kufuor, who did not provide details of the exact nature of investigation, made this known at the signing of an audit agreement between the pension scheme and PricewaterhouseCoopers to review the financial records of the Trust in Accra on Tuesday, 22 August 2017.

“From my conversations, five people are being investigated and about 15 have been called as witnesses, but five are being investigated,” he stated.

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

Dissociating himself from the malfeasance, Prof Alabi, who is speculated to be eyeing the presidential slot of the main opposition National Democratic Congress told Accra-based Citi FM in an interview that: “What really happened was that maybe the management went beyond the approved figure and brought it to the board for ratification and we queried it, and this is in the minutes, so this is what I can tell you about that project.

“It was awarded before my board, the management went beyond the contract sum without cause to the board, they came to the board for ratification and we queried it and warned the management but then I also want to believe that the previous board really took into consideration the operations of SSNIT before they awarded that contract and the management also explained to the board that there were some unforeseen expenditure that occurred and that was why they went beyond their contract sum but then we queried them because we said they should have brought it to the board for discussion and approval before awarding it,” the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Accra, said.