A fresh controversy has erupted within the National Service Authority (NSA) following conflicting positions between the Minister for Youth Development
A fresh controversy has erupted within the National Service Authority (NSA) following conflicting positions between the Minister for Youth Development and Empowerment, George Opare Addo, and the Authority’s Director-General, Felix Gyamfi, over the future of the CMSP/Metric App — the digital platform at the heart of the ongoing ghost names scandal.
The App that was allegedly used by the previous administration headed Osei Assibey Antwi to churn out the ghost names which is a subject of litigation is now causing rift between the Opare Addo and his subordinate Felix Gyamfi.
On August 25, 2025, the Minister issued a directive instructing the NSA to terminate all contractual relations with Inpath Technologies Ltd, developers of the CMSP/Metric App, citing presidential instructions and recent audit findings.
The Minister argued that the app, which was exposed earlier this year as being linked to fraudulent padding of names on the service personnel database, lacked the safeguards needed to guarantee transparency, security, and accountability.
In his letter, the Minister ordered that a termination notice be issued within 72 hours, all government property retrieved from the vendor, and a Transition and Implementation Steering Committee established within five days to oversee the rollout of a new digital platform within 15 days.
He emphasized that the directive was part of his oversight mandate as the supervising minister of the NSA, stressing that President John Mahama had, on June 27, directed his ministry to spearhead a new transparent and fraud-proof system.
Director-General Pushes Back
However, NSA Director-General Felix Gyamfi strongly rejected the directive in a response dated August 27, 2025.
Gyamfi insisted that the CMSP/Metric App was “fit for purpose” and had, in fact, been instrumental in exposing irregularities in the NSA payroll.
He argued that financial losses recorded in the ghost names scandal were not due to the app itself, but rather manual circumvention of the system’s controls by individuals within the Authority.
According to Gyamfi, the platform has already helped save the state an estimated GH¢460 million in 2025 alone, citing compliance improvements since his assumption of office.
He further noted that auditors commissioned to review the system concluded that the platform itself was robust and capable of preventing fraud, if applied strictly.
The Director-General also cautioned that terminating the app would come at a significant cost to government.
Earlier in July, he had forwarded a proposal from Inpath Technologies Ltd offering to hand over the platform to the NSA at a valuation of $2 million, warning that building an alternative system from scratch would be more expensive.
A System Under Scrutiny
The clash between the Minister and the Director-General stems from broader concerns over accountability in the management of the National Service Scheme.
In January 2025, The Fourth Estate published an investigative exposé that uncovered the existence of thousands of ghost names in the NSA’s database.
The report revealed how inflated service personnel lists and manipulated postings enabled payments of hundreds of millions of cedis to fictitious recruits.
Subsequent investigations by the Office of the Attorney-General confirmed that more than GH¢548 million had been mismanaged through these fraudulent practices, implicating both NSA officials and private vendors.
Public pressure mounted, leading to calls for accountability and reform. In response, the Presidency ordered the suspension of the CMSP/Metric App pending a full technical and forensic audit.
The standoff between Opare Addo and Gyamfi now raises fresh uncertainty about the digital future of the NSA. More anon.
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