The National Organiser of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, has announced his intention to take legal action against The Fourth Estate over its report alleging the existence of ghost names in National Service postings.
According to Nana Boakye, The Fourth Estate’s investigative piece was misleading and based on a flawed methodology.
Speaking on JoyFM Top Story on Wednesday, February 19, he argued that the media organisation inaccurately subtracted figures published by the National Service Scheme (NSS) from those presented to Parliament, leading to erroneous conclusions about alleged ghost names.
“What I’m saying is that the formula they use for the declaration that these are ghost names is fraud,” Nana Boakye asserted.
“We do a summation of all of these figures, we present it to Parliament, so for them to have extracted a figure from Parliament, and then again, to have relied only on the National Service postings publications we make for the July, August postings, is disingenuous, it’s recklessness.”
The controversy stems from The Fourth Estate’s claim that in 2018, the NSS published a total of 85,000 postings, while Parliament was presented with a figure of 135,000.
The difference of 50,000 was then flagged as ghost names, an assertion Nana Boakye vehemently disputed.
He explained that beyond the initial university student postings, additional groups, including teacher trainees and nursing students, are posted at different times of the year, which accounts for the higher figure submitted to Parliament.
He further contended that National Service postings are publicly documented through press releases, making it easy to verify numbers.
“Anytime we post nurses, it is online, we make it public. Anytime we post teachers, we make it public so you can easily verify. So it is disingenuous to say that they went to Parliament, they picked the figure from there and then they relied on only one figure,” he said.
Nana Boakye also pointed out that the NSS registration system has been a target for scammers who attempt to infiltrate it using fraudulent credentials.
However, he stated that biometric verification at regional and district levels prevents such individuals from benefiting from the scheme.
“For Fourth Estate, for me, frankly, I am going to take them on because you see, you do not put people’s reputation on the line like that,” he stated.
“I listen to Sulemana Braimah making categorical statement that because they have got gotten a figure from Parliament, they subtracted from the main one and then those are ghosts. They multiply by National Service allowance and they say that those monies are found in the pocket of people.
“I am going to sue them. You are saying that you did not get access to GIPS (Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Limited) data. I didn’t hear that portion coming out. I didn’t hear Sulemana saying that the only point where we can say that those people were paid would be at GIPS. But unfortunately, we do not get access to GIPS so we cannot confirm that they were paid.”
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