L-R: Gifty Oware-Mensah, Mustapha Ussif and Osei Assibey Antwi
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 system and 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%.
She allegedly achieved these results by using other people’s information to register a company called Blocks Of Life Consult without their knowledge or permission.
“Subsequently, she presented Blocks of Life Consult through a middleman in the person of Maxwell Akwesi Ofori-Mintah to an official of the Agricultural Development Bank, enlisting her husband, Peter Mensah, a lawyer, to act as one of the directors/representatives of the said company,” the AG disclosed.
Madam Oware-Mensah is also accused of using a total of 9,934 ‘ghost’ names within two service years – 2022-2023 and 2023- 2024 to misappropriate the GH¢30,698,218.69 loan she obtained from ADB.
Unlike other suspects, no particular offence has been levelled against Mr. Ussif, but the Attorney General indicated that he was one of the persons responsible for approving payroll data to Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) for payment of allowances to National Service personnel.
AG Presser
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine disclosed that the alleged theft was discovered during a head count of all National Service personnel ordered by the Minister for Finance, as a precondition for the disbursement of arears of allowances payable to the personnel dating back to August 2024.
He said a total of 81,885 names were discovered to be ‘ghost’ names who were being paid money for no work done.
In all, 21 people have been implicated in the alleged brazen theft which has attracted public uproar about the massive rot at the NSA.
“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.”
Suspects
He said investigations so far points to 12 individuals, including former Executive Directors, 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 Mustapha Ussif, 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 levelled 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