The woes of some former executives of the National Service Authority (NSA) and private individuals caught in the ‘ghost names’ scandal, have worsened as the Attorney General (AG) has uncovered another evidence of GH¢189 million of malfeasance.
The Attorney General had been preparing to file charges against the suspects when the new discovery was made, thereby putting the process on hold as further investigations are underway to trace the money and the culprits behind it.
“The National Service Authority scandal case was due to be filed last week when we stumbled upon further evidence of malfeasance involving an account at the Bank of Ghana to which had been transferred an amount of GH¢189 million,” Dr. Dominic Ayine disclosed at a press conference yesterday.
According to him, out of the amount, GH¢80 million cannot be traced. However, two cheques bearing the name and account details of the former Director-General of NSA, Osei Assibey Antwi, which had been used to withdraw funds totaling a little under GH¢2 million from the said account have been found.
“We have therefore halted the filing of charges so as to await the receipt of the evidence from the relevant state agencies, including the Bank of Ghana, Ministry of Finance and the Controller and Accountant General,” Dr. Ayine said.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General has disclosed that at least eight (8) suspects in the ongoing investigation have approached his office for plea negotiations, including three former officers of the NSA.
“Some officials have offered to testify against their colleagues and some vendors, and service providers are willing to come clean and testify as prosecution witnesses,” he added.
Scandal
Former Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Mustapha Ussif and some 11 officials of the Authority have been accused of stealing a whopping GH¢548 million through what the Attorney General describes as a criminal enterprise by way of inserting ‘ghost’ names into the system.
In spite of the digitalisation system introduced by the NSA to detect fraud and other thefts, the suspects allegedly deliberately manipulated the data of national service personnel and managed to syphon various sums of monies for years undetected.
For instance, Osei Assibey Antwi, a former Director-General of the NSA, is accused of having an Ezwich account number in his name, and a total of GH¢8,256,000.00 was deposited into that account in the 2022/2023 season.
During a search at his residence, in the course of investigations, the said Ezwich card was found.
Gifty Oware-Mensah, a former Executive Deputy Director, is also accused of creating and executing a meticulously detailed plan of using national service personnel’s allowances as security to obtain a loan of GH¢30.5 million from the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) at an interest rate of 23%.
Other Investigations
Dr. Ayine further disclosed that the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has completed investigations in respect of the Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako aka Wontumi and the former Chief Executive of National Buffer Stock Company, Abdul-Wahab Hannan and their accomplices, indicating that the results of both investigations will be announced very soon.
He also indicated that the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service has completed the docket on the Akonta Mining case and submitted same to his office.
“We have prepared charges and sent them back to the Police CID for the suspects to be formally charged before their arraignment in court in the coming days,” he said.
Again, Dr. Ayine stated that a report on the dockets for the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) cases including the Mathematical Sets, the All Africa Games, and the District Road Improvement Project (DRIP) scandals are being prepared by the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) for his attention.
“I expect to receive that investigative report in a few weeks for work to begin on filing charges in court,” he added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak