It has been few days of following with keen interest and considerable disquiet the hew from the populace about the hullabaloo at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).
Almost if not all, our basic national fundamental obligations are not properly situated all because of the narrow and premature politics our ruling class practice. Let’s do some crunching scrutiny, thus, to place the trending news of SSNIT into a proper context.
An email from the Georgia Institute of Technology is said to have clearly indicated that they have no records or whatsoever of Caleb Afaglo attending the university.
This, many have argued, shows how weak our recruitment officers are. Indeed, how can someone with no PhD, Masters and not even bachelor’s degree claim he had? Who interviewed him during his application for the job? In fact, if at the end of the day all the allegations against him turn to be true, then he ought to be given the accolade ‘Ghana’s Bravest Man.’
‘Dr’ Caleb Afaglo has been relieved of his duties at SSNIT and the head of the HR department of SSNIT is still at post?
The alleged impersonator didn’t just wake up one day and started working at SSNIT. However, he went through an interview section with whoever was in charge as the company’s Human Resource Manager.
The man in question had worked with MTN, GNPC and other companies where he was taken off post due to this same issues of fake documents he is said to have used to secure employment. So, if Dr Caleb Afaglo is sacked from SSNIT then the HR manager must be asked to resign, too.
The state has lost 72 million dollars because the HR who employed him didn’t do his/her work. What actually prevented him from cross checking from MTN and the others?
The scenario now indicates that the said HR didn’t have interest in verifying for the authenticity of the certificates from the schools Caleb Afaglo claims to have graduated from and needs to be dealt with.
The funny thing about this issue is the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) coming in to discover the truth about his certificates.
All these irregularities are happening due to the fact that our politicians have also failed to deliver. Some state institutions are not working as well. Politicians make laws and fail to enforce it. What actually is the core mandate of the National Identification Authority? If the state has a very good data collection system, that files the profile of all citizens, this wouldn’t have happened.
It’s very sad that Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana is retrogressing. Should there be a very good technological system, SSNIT would have known that the man possess fake documents.
There should be a system in place to verify people’s certificates because there are still people, probably, occupying positions in public institutions with fake certificates.
Also, the National Identification Authority should be given the needed resources to operate in order to reduce such crimes and make it easier for the security agencies to keep track of wanted criminals.
By Evelyn Anane
The writer is a student-journalist at Jayee University.
Email: mzeve18@gmail.com