The Attorney-General has filed criminal charges against two former senior officials of the National Service Authority (NSA) over an alleged GHC653 million fraud scheme involving ghost service personnel and fake bank loans.
Former executive director Osei Assibey Antwi and former deputy executive director Gifty Oware-Mensah are accused in separate cases of orchestrating elaborate schemes that siphoned public funds, according to court documents filed at the Accra High Court.
Osei Assibey’s case
Prosecutors allege that Mr. Antwi authorized payments to more than 60,000 non-existent national service personnel, resulting in losses exceeding GHC500 million. He faces 14 counts, including causing financial loss to the state, stealing, and money laundering.
Investigators say he diverted GH¢106 million from the NSA’s Kumawu Farm Project account on five occasions without any expenditure on the project. He is also accused of transferring GH¢8.26 million into his personal e-zwich account, funds prosecutors describe as “proceeds of crime.”
The total value of the alleged offences attributed to Mr. Antwi amounts to approximately GHC615.1 million.
Oware-Mensah’s GHC31.5m loan scheme
Former deputy director Gifty Oware-Mensah faces five counts, including stealing, willfully causing financial loss, using public office for profit, and money laundering.
According to prosecutors, she used her position overseeing finance and procurement to manipulate the NSA’s “marketplace” platform — a system designed to provide hire-purchase services to service personnel.
She allegedly created 9,934 fake service accounts and used them to secure a GH¢31.5 million loan from the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) through a company she controlled, Blocks of Life Consult. The funds were purportedly secured against the allowances of the ghost personnel.
The state claims Oware-Mensah later transferred GH¢22.9 million to another company where she also served as a director, while no goods were ever delivered to service personnel.
Both former officials are expected to appear before the Accra High Court in the coming days.
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