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Two former heads of Ghana’s National Service Authority (NSA) have strongly denied allegations of payroll fraud, dismissing a media report that claimed the agency had been paying salaries to non-existent personnel.
Osei Assibey Antwi, former Director-General of the NSA, and Mustapha Ussif, a former Executive Director, refuted claims by investigative outlet The Fourth Estate that the service’s payroll was padded with ghost names. They argued the report misrepresented the NSA’s enrolment, verification, and payment processes.
“The publication is laden with a misapprehension of the enrolment, verification and payment processes of the National Service Authority, as well as selective omission of information, calculated to achieve contrived conclusions of imputing wrongdoing to former officers,” the two said in a joint statement.
According to them, the discrepancy between the figures presented to Parliament and those publicly available stems from The Fourth Estate’s failure to account for additional enrolment cycles for nursing and teacher trainees.
“The claim by The Fourth Estate is therefore without any basis, which fact would have been apparent to them had they exercised any diligence in their purported investigations,” they stated.
The former officials insisted that while Parliament allocates funds based on the total number of personnel posted, not all end up on the payroll due to verification failures or personnel failing to take up their postings. They stressed that payments were strictly made through the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), a subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana, and subject to monthly validation.
“Any surplus sums after payments by GhIPSS are left in the Authority’s account for subsequent use. The publication by The Fourth Estate is therefore false in suggesting that simply because monies allocated by Parliament exceed verified postings, some ‘ghosts’ are drawing pay,” they added.
Addressing allegations that the NSA payroll included individuals with incorrect IDs and foreign images, they explained that initial enrolment data was often flawed because educational institutions and private applicants provided information without NSA’s direct input. However, all personnel underwent in-person biometric verification, ensuring that those failing the process were not added to the payroll.
“The several images, allegations of foreign nationals and placeholder images provided by The Fourth Estate are within this category of fraudulent attempts to beat the NSA system,” they said.
The former officials criticised the investigation as “a sensational story to smear former officers” and welcomed a probe into the matter.
“We urge journalists to stay true to their creed and be thorough in their work to avoid publishing sensational stories that malign individuals without basis,” they said.
The NSA, a government agency responsible for deploying graduates to national service, has faced scrutiny over its payroll system in recent years.
Below is the full statement:
Email Daily Mail GH: stories@dailymailgh.com or
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