A storm of outrage has swept across Ghana following revelations of large-scale payroll fraud at the National Service Scheme (NSS), where over 81,000 ghost names were allegedly added to the payroll in a deliberate scheme to siphon public funds.
According to Attorney General Dominic Ayine, investigators have uncovered concrete evidence of payments made by private vendors into the personal accounts of top executives at the scheme. These transactions, he confirmed, were part of a broader conspiracy involving vendors and some staff of the NSS to defraud the state.
The scandal, which gained traction after explosive findings by The Fourth Estate, alleges that the NSS deliberately registered tens of thousands of fake names, each assigned a monthly salary of GHC 715. The total cost to the taxpayer is believed to run into hundreds of millions of cedis.
The public backlash has been swift and severe. Ghanaians, already burdened by economic challenges, expressed heartbreak and disbelief on social media over how individuals entrusted with national service administration could engage in such brazen theft from the public purse.
Ironically, in February 2022, during a visit by then-Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, NSS management led by Director-General Osei Assibey Antwi proudly claimed they had implemented a digitalization system that saved the nation GHC 112 million by eliminating ghost names. “They ran away and could not register because the system raised red flags,” Antwi had said at the time.
Dr. Bawumia publicly praised the initiative as a success in the government’s digital transformation agenda. However, the latest revelations have now cast that narrative in serious doubt, exposing the system as a facade that allegedly concealed the very fraud it claimed to prevent.
Ghanaians are now calling for swift and decisive action to hold the culprits accountable. As the Attorney General’s office continues its investigation, citizens are watching closely to see whether justice will prevail in what is now being called one of the biggest payroll scandals in recent memory.
Read the full investigative report by The Fourth Estate.