In what has become one of the largest public sector corruption scandals, the Attorney-General’s Department has filed criminal charges against two form
In what has become one of the largest public sector corruption scandals, the Attorney-General’s Department has filed criminal charges against two former top executives of the National Service Authority (NSA), accusing them of defrauding the state of more than GH¢653 million through elaborate schemes involving ghost names, fake loans, and money laundering.
The accused — Osei Assibey Antwi, the former Executive Director of the NSA, and his then-deputy, Gifty Oware-Mensah, who oversaw Finance and Procurement — are alleged to have masterminded separate but coordinated fraud schemes between 2023 and 2024.
A Scandal Rooted in Ghost Names and Fake Projects
The scandal traces its roots to an internal audit conducted at the NSA in late 2024, which uncovered irregular payments and suspicious transactions linked to both top officials.
The revelations came just months after the government had launched digital reforms to sanitize the national service payroll system — reforms that, ironically, were under the supervision of the same accused officials.
According to court filings, the audit findings prompted a full-scale investigation by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), leading to the arrest and subsequent charging of the two former directors.
Osei Assibey’s GH¢615 Million “Ghost Personnel” Scheme
Prosecutors allege that Osei Assibey Antwi authorized the payment of allowances to more than 60,000 fictitious national service personnel, resulting in a staggering financial loss of GH¢500,861,744.02 to the state.
Court documents detail that between August 2023 and May 2024, the former Executive Director processed multiple fraudulent payments under the pretext of clearing backlogs for personnel in remote districts.
Investigators later discovered that the names on the payroll did not exist in any verified NSS database.
In addition to the ghost payments, Assibey is accused of illegally withdrawing over GH¢106 million from the Kumawu Farm Project account, a government-backed agricultural initiative meant to train and employ service personnel.
Prosecutors say not a single cedi of that amount went toward the project’s intended use.
The Attorney-General further alleges that Assibey personally transferred GH¢8.26 million into his e-zwich account, constituting an act of money laundering.
The total estimated value of the offences linked to him stands at GH¢615,117,744.02.
Gifty Oware-Mensah’s Loan and Procurement Fraud
Meanwhile, Gifty Oware-Mensah, who served as Deputy Executive Director in charge of Finance and Procurement, is accused of engineering an intricate loan fraud that cost the state over GH¢38 million.
According to prosecutors, Oware-Mensah took advantage of the NSA’s “marketplace platform” — a system designed to allow service personnel to acquire goods through hire-purchase arrangements.
She allegedly registered a private firm, Blocks of Life Consult, and used it to generate a fake list of 9,934 ghost service personnel from the NSA database.
Using the fake names as collateral, she approached the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to secure a GH¢31.5 million loan, claiming her company had supplied goods to the supposed beneficiaries.
ADB, acting in good faith, transferred the amount to her company’s account — funds that were later traced to another firm where she also served as a director.
Prosecutors say no goods were ever supplied, and the entire transaction was fabricated. With accrued interest and other losses, the total value of her alleged offences reached GH¢38,458,248.87.
Background and Fallout
The National Service Authority, formerly known as the National Service Secretariat, was restructured under the National Service Authority Act, 2023 (Act 1095) to modernize operations, ensure accountability, and expand its revenue-generating activities.
The accused officials were among the first senior appointees under this new framework.
Their arrests have reignited public debate over corruption within state institutions, especially in newly created agencies where oversight systems remain weak.
Civil society groups, including the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), have since called for stronger audit mechanisms and full disclosure of all personnel verification exercises.
Both Osei Assibey Antwi and Gifty Oware-Mensah are expected to make their first court appearance in Accra High Court later this month.
If convicted, they could face up to 25 years in prison, along with restitution orders for the recovery of state funds.
The Attorney-General’s Office has described the case as a “test of institutional integrity” and vowed to ensure full accountability.
The development marks a dramatic fall from grace for the once-celebrated public servants, who just two years ago were praised for digitizing the national service system — a project now tainted by what investigators describe as one of the costliest public payroll frauds in recent memory.
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