The Office of the Attorney-General has filed charges against two former top directors of the National Service Authority (NSA).
This comes on the back of the corruption scandal that allegedly defrauded the country of about GH¢653 million.
In two separate court documents filed at the High Court in Accra, the state accuses the former Executive Director, Osei Assibey Antwi, and the former Deputy Executive Director, Gifty Oware-Mensah of orchestrating two distinct schemes that siphoned public funds through “ghost” service personnel and fraudulent bank loans.
The Executive Director’s Alleged GH¢615 Million Scheme
Osei Assibey Antwi faces a staggering fourteen counts for his alleged role in what is one of the largest financial loss cases in recent memory.
The charges include causing financial loss to the Republic, with the flagship charge accusing him of authorizing the payment of allowances to more than 60,000 non-existent national service personnel, resulting in a colossal loss of GH¢500,861,744.02.
He also faces multiple counts of stealing, totaling GH¢8,256,000, on specific dates between August 2023 and May 2024.
Mr Antwi is further accused of misusing project funds by authorizing the withdrawal of GH¢106 million from the NSA’s Kumawu Farm Project account on five occasions without spending a cedi on the project.
The state also alleges he committed money laundering by transferring GH¢8.26 million directly into his personal e-zwich account and taking possession of the funds, knowing they were proceeds of crime.
The total approximate value of the offences attributed to Mr Antwi is GH¢615,117,744.02.
The Deputy Director’s Elaborate Loan Fraud
Meanwhile, Gifty Oware-Mensah faces five counts, including Stealing, Willfully Causing Financial Loss, Using Public Office for Profit, and Money Laundering.
According to the brief facts of the case, Oware-Mensah, who oversaw the NSA’s Finance and Procurement departments, allegedly engineered an elaborate scam involving the NSA’s “marketplace” platform, a system designed to provide hire-purchase services to service personnel.
The prosecution alleges she took control of a private company, Blocks of Life Consult, and generated a list of 9,934 ghost names from the NSA’s system.
She then approached the Agricultural Development Bank, falsely claiming her company had supplied goods to these ghosts and needed a loan, using their non-existent allowances as collateral.
This led to her orchestrating a loan agreement between ADB and the NSA, resulting in a GH¢31.5 million disbursement directly into her company’s account. She subsequently transferred over GH¢22.9 million of this amount to another company where she was a director.
No goods were ever supplied to any service personnel. With accrued interest, her actions allegedly caused a total loss of GH¢38,458,248.87 to the state.
A Culture of Impunity Unraveled
The cases, uncovered by the National Intelligence Bureau, paint a picture of deep-rooted alleged corruption at the highest levels of a pivotal state institution. The NSA is mandated to mobilize graduates for national development, but these charges suggest its funds were systematically plundered by its very leaders.
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