Former Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Osei Assibey Antwi, and former Deputy Executive Director, Gifty Oware Mensah, have been charged for allegedly authorising and benefiting from payments made to 69,934 non-existent national service personnel.
According to the prosecution, between August 2021 and February 2025, Mr. Antwi allegedly authorised payments amounting to GH¢500,861,744.02 in allowances to over 60,000 ghost names on the National Service payroll.
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, has consequently charged him with 14 counts, including causing financial loss to the state, stealing, and money laundering.
In the case of Gifty Oware Mensah, the prosecution alleges that she fraudulently generated 9,934 ghost names from the NSA’s Central Management System (CMS).
She is said to have taken control of Blocks of Life Consult Limited, using her mother’s driver as one of the company’s directors. She allegedly presented the company to the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), claiming it had supplied goods on hire-purchase to the supposed service personnel and intended to use their allowances as collateral.
This scheme, according to prosecutors, enabled her to fraudulently secure GH¢38,458,248.87 from the bank through source deductions over an 11-month period.
Mrs. Oware Mensah has been charged with five counts, including willfully causing financial loss to the state, using public office for profit, and money laundering.
Both former officials are expected to appear before the High Court in Accra this week for the taking of their pleas.
