Over 81,000 Suspected Ghost Names Detected on National Service Payroll
Eighty-one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five suspected Ghost names have been discovered on the National Service Authority (NSA) payroll.
The discovery comes after a communique by the Authority in December 2024 denied the existence of ghost names and claimed 300 million cedis had been saved between 2021 and 2024 in sanitizing the payroll.
A statement issued by the spokesperson of the President said a headcount had exposed 81,885 suspected ghost names.
“The ghost names were detected following a head count of active National Service personnel at the behest of the Minister for Finance as a prerequisite for the clearance of allowance arrears dating back to August 2024.”
This number, he said, is 81,885 fewer than the 180,030 names submitted by the previous management of the Authority for allowance payments in 2024.
President John Dramani Mahama has therefore ordered an investigation into these names.
“President John Dramani Mahama has ordered the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) to conduct immediate investigations into the operations of the National Service Authority under the previous government following the discovery of up to 81,885 suspected ghost names on the payroll of the Authority.”
An amount of GHS 226,019,224 covering allowance payment arrears for 98,145 actual National Service Personnel has since been released by the Ministry of Finance.
Meanwhile, the new leadership of the Authority has been tasked to carry out urgent reforms with the view to establishing adequate controls to prevent a recurrence of the phenomenon of ghost names.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
