General News of Thursday, 31 August 2017

Source: classfmonline.com

$72m SSNIT software not surprising – Awuni

Former spokesperson of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, Andrew Awuni Former spokesperson of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, Andrew Awuni

A former spokesperson of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, Andrew Awuni, has said he is not surprised the Social Security and National Investment Trust (SSNIT) invested $72million in software because such is happening in many institutions across the country.

According to him, this is not the last time the country will hear news of institutions mismanaging huge sums of monies in the course of their operations.

His comment comes after the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) investigations into the $72 million software purchased by SSNIT.

There are concerns that the monies paid for the system have been overpriced, with ICT experts arguing that the cost for the application is outrageous.

The software system, which was undertaken in 2012, is, according to SSNIT, meant to provide customers with convenient services.

Speaking on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Thursday, 31, 2017 Mr Awuni said: “$72million software didn’t surprised me. When I heard it, it didn’t surprise me at all. And I don’t think it’s the last time we are going to hear about [something like this].

“I don’t think this is the biggest amount of money [because] as at yesterday, I was hearing about another $150million that has been invested in some housing projects and a whole lot of things, so it’s not going to be the last time we are going to hear about this and it’s not just about SSNIT .

“I think there are many other organisations in this country that could be even in a worst situation. I’m not surprised at all. But you see, the difficulty is that as we speak today even with the $72million investment in the software, if you as a contributor want any information about your contribution with SSNIT, you may have serious challenges getting that information to the extent that the organisation themselves does not even know who is a contributor sometimes…”