The State has asked the Criminal Court, 5 division of the High Court, to allow it some time to amend the charge of willfully causing financial loss proffered against former Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) top management members.

This follows a Supreme Court ruling a few weeks ago which described the criminal charge as inappropriate.

The apex court had held that particulars of the charge were scanty and did not meet the constitutional guarantees on fair trial as per article 19 of the Constitution, 1992.

A former Director-General of SSNIT, Ernest Thompson, together with four others; John Hagan Mensah, a former SSNIT IT Manager, Caleb Kwaku Afaglo, a former SSNIT Head of Management Information Systems (MIS), Peter Hayibor, lawyer for SSNIT, and Juliet Hassana Kramer, Chief Executive Officer of Perfect Business Systems (PBS), were accused of causing financial loss of over $14.8 million in a controversial purchase of an Operational Business Suite (OBS) for SSNIT.

They faced 29 charges of criminal offences including defrauding by false pretences, breaches of the Public Procurement Act and authoring of forged documents.

The Director of Public Prosecution, Yvonne Atakorah Obuobisa told the High Court presided over by Justice Anthony Kwofie, that the State had just received a copy of the Supreme Court ruling on the and was in the process of amending the charges.

“We obtained the judgment of the Supreme Court just yesterday in the afternoon, and we’re now amending the charge of causing financial loss”.

Madam Obuobisa thus asked the court to grant the State a two-week window to amend the charge.

The Court has thus adjourned to Thursday, April 22, 2021.