President John Dramani Mahama has directed the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) to launch an inquiry into a payroll fraud scandal at the National Service Authority.
This follows the discovery of 81,885 suspected ghost names on the payroll under the previous government.
A statement signed by Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Spokesperson to the President and Minister for Government Communications, revealed that the fraud was uncovered during a nationwide headcount of National Service personnel.
“The ghost names were detected following a headcount of active National Service personnel at the behest of the Minister for Finance as a prerequisite for the clearance of allowance arrears dating back to August 2024.”
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Following the verification process, the Ministry of Finance released GHS 226,019,224 to settle outstanding allowances for 98,145 legitimate service personnel, exposing the inflation of the payroll by the previous administration.
“This figure is 81,885 less than the 180,030 names presented by the previous management of the Authority for allowance payment in 2024.”
President Mahama has also tasked the new management of the National Service Authority to implement urgent reforms to prevent a recurrence of the ghost names phenomenon.
“The president has asked the new management of the Authority to carry out urgent reforms with the view to establishing adequate controls to prevent a recurrence of the phenomenon of ghost names.”
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