A former Board Chairman of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Mr Kwame Peprah has denied the contents of a statement issued on his behalf by one Justice Opoku Agyeman, claiming to be his Aide. 

Mr. Peprah whose name the statement sought to whitewash from the ongoing $72 million SSNIT e-business project scandal, denies knowledge of the alleged Aide and further finds factual inaccuracies with the contents of that defence put up on his behalf. 

"I never had and do not have an Aid called Justice Opoku Agyeman. I have also not authorised anybody to make any comment in relation to this matter on my behalf. Again, the facts in this particular article being circulated are twisted and wrong," Mr Kwame Peprah stated in a short message to some friends. 

Mr Peprah, who is a former Finance Minister in the Jerry John Rawlings government, had been mentioned by Prof. Joshua Alabi as the Chairman of the SSNIT board that initiated and signed the contract for the automation of SSNIT's businesses. 

Prof Joshua Alabi, who took over the Chairmanship of the SSNIT board in July 2013, insists that his board inherited the e-business as an ongoing project, and that one of the first duties of his board was to tour the facilities of SSNIT to see the state of work. 

The former Vice Chancellor of UPSA further justified the Kwame Peprah board's contract saying he does not see anything wrong with it, though he came in after the software had been purchased.

“At the time I took over, the contract answered all the necessary questions and I could not just go about abrogating contracts”.

Myjoyonline.com is informed that in December 2012, SSNIT made its first payment of $10,337,056.00 to the vendor consortium in fulfilment of its part of the contract signed in November, 2012. The project then took off in earnest necessitating the payment of other costs under the agreement. 

The denied Aide of Mr. Kwame Peprah, however had in his statement attempted to challenge the position of Prof. Joshua Alabi by stating that the board of Mr. Peprah never concluded arrangements with the vendor consortium and did not make any payments to that effect. 

Evidence available to Joy FM and collaborated by the Director General of SSNIT indicates that the contract was signed in November 2012 when the Kwame Peprah board was in charge of the Trust and consequently discredits the claim of the discredited Aide.

Meanwhile, Mr. Peprah has turned down media requests for interviews, as his associates maintain that he will prefer to respond to the auditors commissioned to investigate the contract and clear all doubts.