The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, has announced that formal charges will soon be filed against 12 individuals, including former Deputy Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Mensah, over ghost names payroll scandal at the institution.
Speaking at a press briefing in Accra on Friday, June 13, Dr. Ayine confirmed that investigations led by the National Investigations Bureau (NIB), in collaboration with the Attorney General’s office, have been concluded, and a docket has been prepared for prosecution.
He revealed that parliamentary funds allocated for projects under the NSA were instead funneled into private accounts via a sophisticated scheme involving ghost names and financial manipulation.
According to Dr. Ayine, Gifty Oware-Mensah played a central role in the operation.
He added that Oware-Mensah’s scheme involved diverting National Service allowances into a carefully structured plan to obtain the ADB loan, which amounted to GH₵30,698,218.
The NSS ghost names scandal has already led to the detention of several top officials, including former NSA Director-General Osei Assibey Antwi and other high-ranking deputies.
Dr. Ayine assured that the government remains committed to pursuing justice, saying, “No one involved in this organized theft of public resources will escape accountability.”
Dr. Ayine said, “For instance, we have conclusively established that, after collecting these funds, some of the suspects, such as Gaisie, Nyarko, and Oteng handed them over to suspect Osei Assibey Antwi in cash and on some occasions deposited the cash into his bank account. Some directors, such as Gifty Oware-Mensah, created and executed a meticulously detailed plan, using NSP allowances as security to obtain a loan of thirty million six hundred and ninety-eight thousand, two hundred and eighteen cedis, sixty-nine pesewas (GH¢30,698,218.69) from the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) at an interest rate of twenty-three percent (23%).”
“She 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.”
He added, “Having concluded our investigations, we will be filing charges against twelve suspects who worked as directors and staff of the NSA. These are Mustafa Yussif, 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, Albert Oteng Owusu, former internal auditor, 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.”
