Auditor-General’s audit exposes ex-deputy NSA boss was enrol...

Auditor-General’s audit exposes ex-deputy NSA boss was enrolled as a Service Personnel

A forensic audit by the Auditor-General has revealed that Gifty Oware-Mensah, Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), was unlawfully enrolled as a national service personnel while already employed as a full-time public officer. According to the audit report, Mrs. Oware-Mensah was manually added to the National Service Scheme database on March 16, 2021, under the guise of serving based on her Master of Public Administration degree from KNUST — a move that contravenes statutory eligibility requirements. Her full service allowance of GH¢6,708.48 (GH¢559.04 monthly for 12 months) was diverted to a vendor via the NSA’s “MarketPlace” platform for a supposed credit facility. The approval, issued on April 22, 2021, came from then-Minister for Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, whom auditors noted had no legal mandate to authorize such a PIN assignment. Though officially posted to Koblimahagu Sobriya Primary School in Tamale, Mrs. Oware-Mensah neither reported for duty nor underwent biometric validation, yet her details remained active on the payroll. The audit identified her as one of 4,556 individuals improperly enrolled as service personnel, resulting in irregular expenditures amounting to GH¢899,349.67. Only 19 of those enrollees met the minimum validation criteria. Investigators blamed the lapse on manual overrides, poor system security, and the absence of automated verification tools to block salaried officers from dual enrolment. The report also flagged misuse of the NSA’s “MarketPlace” platform, which enabled unauthorized deductions and payments without evidence of goods or services rendered. The Auditor-General described the situation as a “serious breach of public trust” and recommended the recovery of all funds, with Mrs. Oware-Mensah and implicated officials — including Osei Assibey Antwi and Eric Nyarko — to be surcharged with the total amount plus interest at the prevailing Bank of Ghana rate. The report further urged disciplinary action against those who bypassed standard procedures and called for immediate automation of the service’s validation systems to prevent future abuses.

According to the audit report, Mrs. Oware-Mensah was manually added to the National Service Scheme database on March 16, 2021, under the guise of serving based on her Master of Public Administration degree from KNUST — a move that contravenes statutory eligibility requirements.

Her full service allowance of GH¢6,708.48 (GH¢559.04 monthly for 12 months) was diverted to a vendor via the NSA’s “MarketPlace” platform for a supposed credit facility.

The approval, issued on April 22, 2021, came from then-Minister for Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, whom auditors noted had no legal mandate to authorize such a PIN assignment.

Though officially posted to Koblimahagu Sobriya Primary School in Tamale, Mrs. Oware-Mensah neither reported for duty nor underwent biometric validation, yet her details remained active on the payroll.

The audit identified her as one of 4,556 individuals improperly enrolled as service personnel, resulting in irregular expenditures amounting to GH¢899,349.67. Only 19 of those enrollees met the minimum validation criteria.

Investigators blamed the lapse on manual overrides, poor system security, and the absence of automated verification tools to block salaried officers from dual enrolment.

The report also flagged misuse of the NSA’s “MarketPlace” platform, which enabled unauthorized deductions and payments without evidence of goods or services rendered.

The Auditor-General described the situation as a “serious breach of public trust” and recommended the recovery of all funds, with Mrs. Oware-Mensah and implicated officials — including Osei Assibey Antwi and Eric Nyarko — to be surcharged with the total amount plus interest at the prevailing Bank of Ghana rate.

The report further urged disciplinary action against those who bypassed standard procedures and called for immediate automation of the service’s validation systems to prevent future abuses.