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Two former National Service Authority (NSA) top directors are facing charges from the Office of the Attorney General.
The corruption scandal that reportedly cheated the nation of over GH¢653 million earlier.
The state charges former Executive Director Osei Assibey Antwi and former Deputy Executive Director Gifty Oware-Mensah with masterminding two separate schemes that embezzled public funds through “ghost” service personnel and fraudulent bank loans in two different court documents submitted to the High Court in Accra.
Due to his alleged involvement in one of the biggest financial loss instances in recent history, Osei Assibey Antwi is facing an astounding fourteen counts.
He is accused of allowing the payment of allowances to over 60,000 nonexistent national service personnel, resulting in a loss of GH¢500,861,744.02, among other allegations that include causing financial losses to the Republic.
Additionally, he is accused of taking GH¢8,256,000 on several occasions between August 2023 and May 2024.
By approving the five withdrawals of GH¢106 million from the NSA’s Kumawu Farm Project account without investing a single cedi in the project, Mr. Antwi is also charged with misuse of project funds.
By depositing GH¢8.26 million straight into his personal e-zwich account and seizing the money, knowing it was the proceeds of crime, the state further claims he committed money laundering.
GH¢615,117,744.02 is the approximate total worth of the offenses that Mr. Antwi is accused of committing.
Gifty Oware-Mensah, on the other hand, is charged with five counts: money laundering, stealing, willfully causing financial loss, and using public office for profit.
The case’s summary facts state that Oware-Mensah, who was in charge of the NSA’s Finance and Procurement divisions, reportedly planned a complex fraud employing the agency’s “marketplace” platform, which is a mechanism that allows service people to hire-purchase services.
According to the prosecution, she created a list of 9,934 ghost names from the NSA’s system after seizing control of Blocks of Life Consult, a private company.
Then, using their fictitious allowances as collateral, she went to the Agricultural Development Bank and made up a story about how her company had given these ghosts items and that they required a loan.
As a result, she negotiated a loan arrangement between ADB and the NSA, which allowed GH¢31.5 million to be transferred straight into her business’s account. She later moved more than GH¢22.9 million of this sum to another business in which she served as a director.
No service personnel ever received any things.
Her acts allegedly cost the state GH¢38,458,248.87 in total losses, including accumulated interest.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
