Attorney-General (A-G) and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine, has revealed that a whopping GHC548,333,542.65 was lost to the criminal enterprise perpetrated by executives, directors, and staff at the National Service Authority (NSA).

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Providing a breakdown during a press briefing today, June 13, the A-G stated that “In the 2022/2023 service year, 350,926,977.12 was lost to the state. For the 2023/2024 service year, 32,881, 157.07 was lost to the republic."

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He further added, “The criminal enterprise that resulted in the loss of this colossal loss of sum of money involved the creation of ghost names in the NSA payroll system by some directors and staff, which was subsequently exploited to misappropriate state funds for their gain."

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Former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Mensah, has been named as one of the suspects that will be charged and prosecuted.

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Former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Mensah, was released by the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) after being questioned in connection with an ongoing probe into the ghost names scandal at the NSA in March.

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Gifty Oware-Mensah was arrested on March 7,  following her return to Ghana on March 5 after being named a suspect in  ongoing probe into a ghost-name scandal after the release of an investigation by The Fourth Estate.

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The Fourth Estate’s investigation has exposed major payroll irregularities, including the fraudulent use of "ghost names" to inflate the payroll and divert funds. It revealed that officials bypassed mandatory validation processes, enabling thousands of nonexistent individuals to be added to the payroll.

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In some cases, names were duplicated multiple times, with one appearing as many as 226 times. Among the falsely listed beneficiaries was a 72-year-old Kenyan, Kwame Donkor, along with other foreign nationals.

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Investigators identified 81,885 "ghost" names used to siphon state resources.Consequently, President John Dramani Mahama, in his first State of the Nation Address, directed law enforcement agencies to take firm action against those implicated.

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This has led to intensified investigations and a series of arrests. Aside from Gifty Oware-Mensah, former Deputy Director of Operations at NSA, Kwaku Ohene Gyan was arrested on February 22, and subsequently released.

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