The High Court in Accra which is hearing the case brought against a former Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Ernest Thompson, and four others, has given allowance to the state to amend its charge sheet.
The court presided by Justice Henry Kwoffie, an Appeals Court judge with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, on Friday granted an application of the state to amend counts 11 and 12 of its charge sheet.
The prosecution, which was led by Chief State Prosecutor, Marina Appiah Opare, has up to October 19, to file the amended charges
According to Justice Kwoffie, he granted the application after discussions by defense Counsels.
The matter has been adjourned to October 29.
In addition to Mr. Ernest Thompson, John Hagan Mensah, former Information Manager of SSNIT, Juliet Hassan Kramer, Chief Executive Officer of Perfect Business Consult, Caleb Kwaku Afaglo, former Head of Management Information Systems, SSNIT and Mr. Peter Hayibor a lawyer at SSNIT are standing trial.
They are facing charges namely conspiracy to wilfully cause financial loss to the state, wilfully causing financial loss to the state over the $66 million SSNIT Operational Business Suite (OBS project), which was meant to revamp the operations of SSNIT through Information Communications Technology.
Mr. Ernest Thompson and Juliet Kramer are being jointly held over three counts of contravening the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).
Mr. Caleb Afaglo and Kramer are also facing a charge of defrauding by false pretenses. Additionally, Afaglo has been accused again of securing his employment at SSNIT with fake Certificates and he is also said to have possessed forged documents and uttering the said forged certificates.
They have denied the various charges.