The National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye has broken his silence on the Fourth Estate’s investigative report on the National Service Authority (NSA) scandal.
According to Henry Nana Boakye, the Fourth Estate did shoddy work and lazy journalism with their investigation into the NSS ghost name scandal.
Henry Nana Boakye asserted that the Fourth Estate compared the 85,000 figure for general postings to the total sum submitted to Parliament, leading to conclusions about “ghost names.”
Speaking on Citi FM on Tuesday February 18, Henry Nana Boakye stated, “It’s a shoddy work, it’s a lazy journalism. They didn’t do any proper verification,” he said.
He further stated, “What they did was that they picked the publication we usually undertake when we are doing the general National Service posting. So for instance in 2018 we announced that we had posted 85,000 people, so they picked that figure,”
“We do that for the general posting, the teachers, the nurses one, and the nurses two, and then we submit all of these figures to Parliament,” Boakye noted.
The information gathered reveals at least more individuals have been named as persons of interest in the NSS ghost name scandal.
Honourable Mustapha Ussif, Akufo-Addo’s first NSS CEO, Henry Nana Boakye a board member of the NSS, Gifty Oware, Kwaku Ohene Djan, Osei Assibey Antwi are among the 5 fingered in the NSS ghost scandal.
The public has placed more focus on the former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Gifty Oware-Mensah who according to reports oversaw the payment of some allowances into the accounts of 81,885 ghost service personnel.
According to reports about 17 persons could likely be invited for questioning as the NSS ghost name scandal started from 2017 to 2024 when they were exposed.
The John Mahama government has announced it has discovered 81,885 ghost names on the National Service payroll.
The ghost names were detected following a head count of active National Service personnel at the behest of the Minister for Finance.
The headcount of National Service personnel shows, that 98,145 actual National Service personnel were entitled to the allowances, significantly lower than the 180,030 names.
The revelation from the government follows an investigation by the Fourth Estate which alleged a scandal at the NSS last year.
Meanwhile, President John Dramani Mahama has ordered the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) to investigate the NSS ‘ghost names’ scandal.
