Programmes Manager at the Independent Journalism Project under the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Kwaku Krobea Asante has revealed that a single name appeared 226 times on the National Service Authority (NSA) payroll.
This revelation comes after the Fourth Estate discovered a ghost names scandal in November 2024, but the report was only published after an ex-parte injunction secured by the NSA was lifted.
The investigations covered the years 2017 to 2023 and the 2024 national service year.
In an interview on Channel One TV, Krobea Asante indicated that aside from one name appearing 226 times, with the payroll also having names of individuals over 80 and 90 years.
“Ghost names in the sense that what the NSA tells us as the number of personnel is different from what they have in their data. Which data we believe eventually gets into the payroll and is paid. Now the government has come to confirm.”
“Beyond that, we see how they do this, how they pack the ghost names, which is what the story is trying to say. How they use over-age people—80-year-olds and 90-year-olds—to put their data in there. How they create fake index numbers in the name of universities so that they can justify them.”
“Funny names popping up, a single name could be repeated 226 times—such a person has completed the same university, read the same programme, the same year, and been deployed. A lot of odd happenings in the data, pointing to the fact that some people have intentionally done that.”
After the expose was made public, President John Dramani Mahama ordered an investigation into the 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) now NSA, Gifty Oware-Mensah who according to reports oversaw the payment of some allowances into the accounts of 81,885 ghost service personnel.
