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One important issue that has not yet come into the public domain in respect of the stinky $72 million saga of the Operational Business Suite project of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust is the issue of cronyism and probable conflict of interest arising out of the award of the contract to Perfect Business Systems.

The Daily Statesman has uncovered that John Hagan Mensah, SSNIT’s OBS Manager who managed the tender and contract was a boyfriend of Juliet Kramer Hassan, owner and Chief Executive Officer of Perfect Business Systems at the time the contract was awarded.

The two lovebirds are now said to be happily married.

Sources also say Juliet Kramer Hassan has strong links with the former first family, with further allegation that invoices emanating from her firm going through without any serious queries at SSNIT.

This, perhaps, explains why companies that offered to carry out the OBS project at far cheaper prices were rejected.

A total of 10 companies bid for the project. Out of the 10, Persol Systems put in the lowest bid of GHC17 million, approximately $3.4 million.

The highest bid was by Computer Information System who wanted to undertake the project for GHC 36 million.

Other companies that bid for the project included Superlock Technologies Limited, $35,990,850; Sambus Company Limited, $9,892,732; Provision Consultants, $20,648,678; and Cedar Information System, $23,873,930.

It appears it was in this same spirit of cronyism that enabled Juliet Kramer’s company to win other contracts from SSNIT.

A document sighted by the Daily Statesman, dated November 14, 2013, and addressed to the CEO of Perfect Business Systems & Silverlake Structured Services, indicates how SSNIT purchased 25 pieces Fujitsu brand fi6800 scanners at a total cost of $510,000, meaning each scanner costing $20,400.

Before that transaction, SSNIT had been caught up in an obviously scandalous procurement arrangement that involved the acquisition of 50 pieces of HP SCANJET 8270 scanners from this same Perfect Business Systems, at a unit cost of $1,500 each, all totaling $75,000.

In the very week of the arrival of the scanners, 20 were found to be faulty. The paper has gathered that SSNIT’s OBS Project Manager, John Hagan Mensah, sent the 20 scanners to the company for servicing but for a whole year, they were left untouched and be returned later to SSNIT, with the claim that the warranty had expired.

Meanwhile, SSNIT has sacked its General Manager for Management Information Systems, ‘Dr’ Caleb Afaglo, for securing a job at the Trust with fake degrees. He was initially under interdiction.

SSNIT in a statement released yesterday said “evidence made available to the Trust indicates that the University degrees presented by Dr Afaglo to secure his employment at the Trust are fake.”