Auditor-General Uncovers Illegal National Service Enrolment of Former NSA Deputy Executive Director
A forensic and technical audit by the Auditor-General has uncovered 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 salaried public officer.
The audit, part of a wider probe into financial and administrative breaches at the NSA, revealed 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 enlistment violated the National Service Act, 1980 (Act 426), which restricts service to first-time personnel and explicitly bars full-time public servants from enrolling.
“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.
Minister’s Irregular Approval
The Auditor-General’s report further revealed that the then-Minister for Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, approved the irregular enrolment on April 22, 2021, despite lacking the legal authority to authorise such actions.
“The minister’s endorsement of the enrolment lacked legal basis and constituted an irregular interference in the operational procedures of the scheme,” the report noted, describing the approval as a clear abuse of administrative process.
Though Mrs Oware-Mensah was posted to the Koblimahagu Sobriya Primary School in Tamale, she never reported for duty nor completed biometric validation, yet her name remained on the NSS payroll throughout the 12-month period.
4,556 Irregular Enrolments Identified
Her case, the audit found, was one among 4,556 similar irregular enrolments, which resulted in unauthorised payments totalling GH¢899,349.67. Of the total, only 19 individuals met the basic validation requirements for legitimate service postings.
The breaches were attributed to manual overrides, weak internal controls, and the absence of automated verification systems capable of detecting double enrolments or preventing the inclusion of ineligible public officers.
MarketPlace Platform Abused
The forensic audit also flagged systemic abuse of the ‘MarketPlace’ platform — a system originally designed to enable service personnel to access credit facilities.
It found that allowances were deducted and redirected to vendors without evidence of goods or services being delivered, with investigators suggesting the platform was exploited to facilitate unauthorised deductions and payments.
“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 report stated.
Widespread Corruption and Weak Oversight
The Auditor-General described the revelations 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 also called for disciplinary and legal sanctions against all officers who approved or facilitated the fraudulent enrolments and urged the NSA to introduce automated verification systems to prevent future abuses.
Broader Pattern of Corruption
This latest revelation adds to a string of damning audit reports exposing entrenched mismanagement within the NSA.
Earlier findings alleged that former Executive Director Osei Assibey Antwi personally received GH¢516,000 monthly under a fake volunteer registration programme, amounting to GH¢8.2 million in total.
Together, these findings highlight a deep-rooted culture of corruption, weak supervision, and systemic abuse within one of Ghana’s most critical youth development agencies.
Governance experts have since called for an independent inquiry and criminal prosecutions, warning that continued impunity could further erode public trust in national institutions.
“This is not an isolated case — it’s a pattern of coordinated corruption,” one governance analyst said. “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 report, pressure is mounting on the government to act decisively — to recover lost funds, sanction culpable officials, and restore public confidence in the National Service Scheme.
