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.
President John Dramani Mahama has ordered the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) to investigate the NSS ‘ghost names’ scandal.
This comes following allegations of 81,885 suspected ghost names on the payroll under the previous government.
A statement from the presidency reads, “President John Dramani Mahama has ordered the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) to conduct immediate investigations into the operations of the National Service Authority under the previous government following the discovery of up to 81,885 suspected ghost names on the payroll of the Authority.
The ghost names were detected following a head count of active National Service personnel at the behest of the Minister for Finance as a prerequisite for the clearance of allowance arrears dating back to August 2024”.
The statement added, “The Ministry of Finance has upon the completion of the head count, released an amount of GHS 226,019,224 covering allowance payment arrears for 98,145 actual National Service Personnel.
This figure is 81,885 less than the 180,030 names presented by the previous management of the Authority for allowance payment in 2024”.
President Mahama further tasked the new management of the Authority to carry out urgent reforms with the view of establishing adequate controls to prevent a recurrence of the phenomenon of ghost names.
See the statement below:
