President John Dramani Mahama has targeted the National Investigation Bureau (NIB) to initiate an immediate investigation of a scandal at the National Service Authority (NSA). This movement is in line with the current administration’s commitment to fight corruption.

The directive follows the discovery of over 81,885 suspected ghost names on the NSA salary following a mandatory personnel for active national service.

A statement signed by the president’s spokesman, Minister of Government’s Communication Felix Kwakye Ofosu, and dated Wednesday, February 12, revealed:

The ghost names were discovered after a personnel for active national service personnel at the request of the finance minister as a prerequisite for approval of compensation that goes back to August 2024.

The statement further revealed that the Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has subsequently released funds to solve the residual staff.

After the end of the staff, the Ministry of Finance released GHS 226,019,224 to cover payment payments for 98,145 actual national service personnel.

This figure is 81,885 less than the 180,030 names filed by the previous management of the Swedish Agency for Compensation Payments in 2024.

At the same time, President Mahama has been given the new management of the NSA to carry out urgent reforms to establish stricter checks and prevent the recurrence of ghost names on the salary.

BACKGROUND
In December 2024, Investigative Media Outlet planned the fourth farm to publish an exposure to alleged corrupt activities within the National Service Scheme (NSS). The publication was scheduled for December 2, just five days before the 2024 election. However, the NSA received a 10-day ban and stopped the release less than 12 hours before the scheduled publication.

Leaked documents later proposed that the scandal involved over 40,000 ghost names on the NSS salary, which led to an estimated annual loss of more than 343 million GHS for three years in a row.

In response, the NSA, in a statement of December 16, denied all salary fraud and described the charges as a threat to its ongoing transformation efforts aimed at eliminating such errors. The authority also expressed its willingness to investigate the claims.