President John Dramani Mahama has ordered investigative bodies to trace and freeze the assets of all suspected individuals involved in the National Service ‘ghost names’ scandal as well as declare them wanted.
He announced these firm measures while delivering the State of the Nation Address on Thursday, February 27, 2025, with the aim of recovering stolen funds and prosecute those responsible.
“Mr. Speaker, as part of Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL), I have already tasked our investigative bodies to bring the culprits of the National Service ghost names scandal to justice. Such brazen theft of public funds must not go unpunished.
It is estimated that the criminal addition of over 80,000 ghost names could have yielded the suspects to siphon over GH¢50 million every month. Unfortunately, some of these suspects are believed to haveabsconded the country. I have directed that they be declared wanted and their assets traced and frozen until investigations are completed,”the President bluntly stated.
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The National Service ‘ghost names’ scandal, a fraudulent scheme that has cost Ghana millions of cedis, emerged following a nationwide audit of the National Service Authority (NSA). Investigators uncovered thousands of fake names on the payroll, allowing corrupt officials to withdraw salaries on behalf of non-existent personnel. High-ranking officials, district directors, and payroll administrators allegedly colluded to orchestrate the scheme.
In a decisive move to root out corruption, President Mahama has called for a full-scale investigation into the National Service fraud.
He has vowed to prosecute all responsible parties, reinforcing his administration’s commitment to accountability and good governance.
The crackdown has already led to key arrests. Over the weekend, the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) detained Yaw Danso, an accountant at the NSA, in connection with the payroll fraud. His arrest follows that of Kwaku Ohene Gyan also known as ‘Osonoba’, the former Deputy Director of Operations at NSA, who was taken into custody on February 23, 2025.
This scandal has inflicted severe financial losses on the state, prompting broader anti-corruption efforts.
The latest arrests mark a significant step in Mahama’s fight against corruption, which has already resulted in the detention of Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, former Chairman of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), in connection with the $2 million Sky Train scandal.
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The government has assured the public that more arrests will follow as the investigation unfolds.
Ex executives of the National Service Authority (NSA) have said they embrace and are ready to fully cooperate with any form of investigations on whether or not there were any financial malfeasance whatsoever when they headed the Authority.
A press statement jointly signed by former Director-General Osei Assibey Antwi and former Executive Director Mustapha Ussif, described as misleading and mischievous, recent reports but out by The Fourth Estate alleging corruption in the payments made to National Service personnel.
The statement dismissed the allegations of corruption and was categorical there had not been any form of inflating personnel figures, facilitating ghost names on the payroll, and failing to conduct proper verification of service personnel.
It said a rigorous system of sustained verification and validation before personnel are paid makes it impossible for the pay role to be padded with ghost names.
The statement accused The Fourth Estate of misunderstanding the system run at the NSA and therefore wrongly concluded there had been some corrupt financial practice.
The statement, in its concluding paragraphs noted:
“The publication by the Fourth Estate must therefore be treated with the contempt it deserves as it is a manifest example of how the misapprehension of data and institutional processes may result in conclusions that misinform and mislead the general public.
“We urge journalists to stay true to their creed and be thorough in their work to avoid publishing sensational stories that malign individuals without basis.
“Finally, we welcome the directive by President Mahama for an investigation, as we are certain the investigation will reveal that the true state of affairs on the matters published are contrary to the contrived allegations by the Fourth Estate.”
