Gifty Oware-Mensah
The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine has disclosed that the country has lost Over GH₵548 million to a criminal enterprise through ghost names perpetrated by some top executives, directors and staff at the National Service Authority (NSA) and some market place vendors.
Speaking at a press conference this morning, he described what appeared to be a deliberate criminal scheme to syphon money from the state.
He said this was discovered during a head count ordered by the Minister for Finance prior to the payment of outstanding national service allowances to personnel.
“Our investigations have revealed a sprawling criminal enterprise whose network covers the entire country. This criminal enterprise was run by top-level executives of the NSA and their accomplices in the private sector known as vendors or service providers,” Dr. Ayine said.
He continued that, “This criminal enterprise resulted in the siphoning of huge sums of public funds into private pockets. In total, we can confirm that a whopping GH₵548,333,542.65 has been lost to the state through this criminal enterprise.”
He said investigations so far points to 12 individuals, including former Executive Director, deputies and other staff of the NSA who played various roles in the alleged criminal scheme, adding that his office would be filing charges against them in due time.
The list includes Mustafa Yussif, a former Executive Director, Osei Assibey Antwi, former Director General, Gifty Oware-Mensah former Deputy Executive Director, Kweku Ohene Gyan, former Deputy Executive Director for operations, Abraham Bismark Gaisie, Head Of Deployment, Eric Nyarko, former Head Of Accounts, and Albert Oteng Owusu, former Internal Auditor.
The rest are Kweku Dekyi Agyei, an accounts officer, Iddrisu Ibn Abu-Bakr, former Head Of Accounts, Stephen Kwabena Gyamfi, Koforidua Municipal Director, Prince Agbofa Awuku, a District Director and Jacob Yawson, Management Information Systems Administrator in the Northern Regional Office.
The Attorney General said charges will also be leveled against some other persons who are vendors on the marketplace on the Central Management System of the NSA in the Eastern, Greater Accra and Ashanti regions.
They include Isaac Osae Asamani, Charles Ohemeng, Philomina Arthur, Rose Hamilton, Kwaku Opare Agbofa, and Solomon Dwamena.
The rest are Haruna Mawulaya, Sylvia Ntriwa Opare and Peter Mensah, a legal practitioner and the husband of Gifty Oware-Mensah.
The suspects would be charged with the offences of conspiracy to steal, stealing, willfully causing financial loss to the state, using public office for profit, obtaining public property by false statements, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ayine has revealed that his office has made the decision to enter into Non-Prosecution Agreements (NPAs) with certain vendors who have agreed to provide compelling testimonies as witnesses for the prosecution.
He added that investigations are ongoing to recover the assets acquired with these stolen monies.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak