Successive SSNIT boards must be held responsible for the $66 million project scandal that has hit the company.
This is according to B. B. B. Bingab a lecturer at the University of Education Winneba.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, he said the board of SSNIT at the time the infamous contract was signed must be questioned over the role in approving the deal and agreeing to the variations that led to the cost increasing from the original price of $34 million.
[contextly_sidebar id=”2FDNNUAaPO3MNMGSiBATl81VkG1aUIca”]Dr. Bingab told Richard Sky that subsequent boards who inherited the deal should have thoroughly examined it and stopped the projects implementation.
He said there was no acceptable excuse that the board that inherited the contract could not review it or completely halt its implementation.
According to him, the board, being the highest decision making body of the company could have exerted its power to ensure a prudent use of pensioners’ funds by the company.
Dr. Bingab noted that the manager directly in charge of providing the project’s scope and supervision of the activities of the company that implemented the project, should be questioned over the development.
“The manager did have powers to vary the contract. [But] They needed to present that to the board…Whoever determined the scope that was advertised did a poor job and that person should be held responsible. You want to overhaul your system and in doing so, ensure that the right thing is done,” he said.
It emerged last week that SSNIT had undertaken a project meant to network all of its branches across the country to enable them to receive real-time data directly from the headquarters in Accra and enhance efficiency at a cost of $66m which later increase to $72m.
The amount was ballooned from an initial contract sum of $34m.
Many have suspected that the deal was overpriced and has generated a lot of backlash from the public.
5 persons are currently under investigations by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO).
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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana