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Former Deputy NSA boss Gifty Oware-Mensah Was Simultaneously Enrolled as National Service Person
A shocking technical and forensic audit by the Auditor-General has revealed that Gifty Oware-Mensah (formerly Oware-Aboagye), a former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), was illegally enrolled as a National Service Personnel while already serving as a full-time salaried public officer.
The audit, which forms part of a broader probe into widespread financial and administrative irregularities at the NSA, uncovered that Mrs Oware-Mensah was manually added to the National Service Scheme’s (NSS) payroll system on March 16, 2021, using her Master of Public Administration degree from KNUST as the basis for enrolment.
According to the report, the former deputy director’s enlistment violated the National Service Act, 1980 (Act 426), which requires all personnel to serve only once and expressly bars full-time public officers from undertaking national service.
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“Mrs Gifty Oware-Aboagye was manually uploaded into the NSS system despite being a salaried public officer. She was subsequently placed on the payroll, and her full allowance of GH¢6,708.48, representing GH¢559.04 per month for 12 months, was deducted and paid to a vendor via the ‘MarketPlace’ platform for a purported credit facility,” the audit stated.
The report further disclosed that the irregular enrolment was approved by then-Minister for Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, on April 22, 2021, although he had no legal authority to sanction such a PIN generation or enrolment.
The Auditor-General emphasised that ministerial approval did not override the statutory restrictions and that the action represented a “clear abuse of administrative process.”
“The minister’s endorsement of the enrolment lacked legal basis and constituted an irregular interference in the operational procedures of the scheme,” the report added.
Despite being posted to the Koblimahagu Sobriya Primary School in Tamale, Mrs Oware-Mensah failed to report for duty and did not undergo biometric validation, yet her name remained on the payroll for the full 12-month period.
The audit found that her case was one of 4,556 similar irregular enrolments, which together caused an unauthorised expenditure of GH¢899,349.67. Of these individuals, only 19 met the basic validation criteria for legitimate national service postings.
Investigators attributed the breaches to manual overrides, weak system controls, and the absence of automated verification checks designed to prevent double enrolment or the inclusion of ineligible persons already employed in the public sector.
The forensic report also raised concerns over the NSA’s ‘MarketPlace’ platform, which was originally introduced to help service personnel access soft credit facilities. However, the audit found that deductions made through the platform were often diverted without evidence of goods or services being delivered.
“Allowances were deducted and redirected to third-party vendors without proof of credit disbursement or delivery. The system was deliberately exploited to facilitate unauthorised deductions and payments,” the audit noted.
The Auditor-General described the findings as “a gross breach of public trust and a compromise of the integrity of the national service deployment process.”
The report recommended that Mrs Oware-Mensah, along with other implicated officials, including former Executive Director Osei Assibey Antwi and Director of Finance Eric Nyarko, be surcharged with the full amount of the irregular payments with interest at the prevailing Bank of Ghana rate.
It further advised that disciplinary and legal actions be taken against all officers who approved or enabled the fraudulent enrolments and urged the NSA to institute automated system checks to prevent similar occurrences.
This revelation follows a series of explosive audit findings exposing large-scale financial mismanagement at the National Service Authority.
Earlier reports indicated that Mr Osei Assibey Antwi, the then Executive Director, allegedly received GH¢516,000 monthly under a fake volunteer registration scheme, amounting to GH¢8.2 million in total.
Together, these findings paint a disturbing picture of rampant corruption, weak oversight, and systemic abuse within one of Ghana’s most critical youth development institutions.
Governance analysts have since called for an independent probe and immediate prosecutions, warning that continued impunity at the NSA risks eroding public confidence in national institutions.
“This is not an isolated case—it’s a pattern of coordinated corruption,” said a governance expert. “When senior public officials manipulate the very systems they are meant to protect, it undermines every value of public service.”
As Parliament prepares to debate the Auditor-General’s findings, pressure is mounting on the government to act swiftly—to recover public funds, sanction those responsible, and restore accountability to the National Service Scheme.
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