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National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, has fiercely criticised the Fourth Estate’s investigative report on alleged irregularities at the National Service Authority (NSA), branding the publication as “shoddy work” and “lazy journalism.”
Speaking on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News on Tuesday, February 18, Boakye accused the Fourth Estate of failing to conduct proper verification before publishing its findings. He argued that the report was misleading and misrepresented the NSA’s enrolment and verification processes.
“It’s shoddy work; it’s lazy journalism. They didn’t do any proper verification,” he asserted.
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The Fourth Estate’s investigation alleged that discrepancies existed between the number of personnel posted by the NSA and figures submitted to Parliament, suggesting the presence of “ghost names” on the payroll. The report further accused the NSA of enrolling unqualified individuals, including overaged persons and foreigners, and highlighted errors in ID numbers and photographs.
However, Boakye dismissed these claims, insisting that the report failed to account for the NSA’s structured posting system, which consists of four separate annual postings.
“What they did was that they picked the publication we usually undertake when we are doing the general National Service posting. So, for instance, in 2018 we announced that we had posted 85,000 people, so they picked that figure,” he explained.
Boakye elaborated that the NSA operates four distinct enrolment categories each year:
- General Postings (August/September): Covers public, private, and technical university graduates.
- Teachers’ Postings (December): Includes newly trained teachers from colleges of education.
- Nurses’ Cohort 1 (April): Assigns the first batch of nursing trainees.
- Nurses’ Cohort 2 (September): Deploys second batch of nursing trainees.
He emphasised that the Fourth Estate’s report relied solely on figures from the general postings while ignoring the additional cohorts of teachers and nurses.
Boakye noted that the NSA’s total enrolment figures—comprising all four categories—are the ones officially presented to Parliament for budgetary approval.
“We do that for the general posting, the teachers, the nurses one, and the nurses two, and then we submit all of these figures to Parliament,” he explained.
According to him, the Fourth Estate’s report compared only the 85,000 figure for general postings to the full total submitted to Parliament, leading to erroneous conclusions about payroll padding and ghost names.
The NPP National Organiser expressed disappointment in the Fourth Estate’s failure to cross-check with relevant stakeholders before publishing its report. He urged journalists to uphold accuracy and due diligence in their investigative work, warning that misleading reports could damage the credibility of institutions and individuals.
“Journalists have a duty to be thorough and responsible. Sensationalism and half-baked reports only serve to mislead the public,” Boakye stressed.
The Fourth Estate has yet to respond to Boakye’s allegations, but its report has sparked widespread debate on the integrity of the NSA’s operations and the accountability of public officials.
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