Detective Sergeant Collins Woode of the Bureau of National Investigations has told the Accra High Court that 63,673 unidentified names received allowances from the National Service Authority for work they never carried out.
The payments covered the 2023 and 2024 service periods, the investigator said while testifying on Wednesday, November 11. He was appearing as the fourth prosecution witness in the trial of former NSA Deputy Executive Director Gifty Oware-Mensah.
The five charges against Ms Oware-Mensah include wilfully causing financial loss to the state, stealing, money laundering and using public office for profit. Prosecutors allege the state lost more than GH¢38 million. She denies the charges and is on bail.
“We had already done an analysis of the whole Central Management System and we found out that 63,673 faceless names were found in the Central Management System to have received allowances for no work done,” Detective Sergeant Woode told Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay.
He said the names could not be linked to identifiable individuals, although payments were made to them every month through Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).
How the names remained active
The Central Management System is used to register personnel and produce the allowance payroll. Registration requires a date of birth, identification details and a photograph, followed by biometric verification.
According to Detective Sergeant Woode, names flagged by the system are placed on a banned list instead of being removed. Any banned name that continues to receive a monthly allowance is classified as a “faceless” name, he said.
Personnel must also complete a monthly evaluation before they qualify for payment.
Links to the ADB loan arrangement
The court heard that Ms Oware-Mensah submitted 9,934 names to ADB in connection with a loan facility and its repayment. The names covered the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 service periods.
Investigators compared those records with the ghost-name list, treating each match as one and each non-match as zero. They found that 7,324 names appeared on both lists, while 2,610 did not match.
Bank officials told investigators that ADB Hire Purchase was not the vendor involved. Blocks of Life Consult, which Ms Oware-Mensah introduced to the bank, was described as a reputable supplier seeking finance to provide goods for about 10,000 personnel. Repayment was to be made through deductions at source.
The repayments were processed through an e-zwich account opened by ADB using the personnel lists supplied by Ms Oware-Mensah. Detective Sergeant Woode said this explained why ADB appeared on the system instead. Bank witnesses had previously given evidence about the arrangement.
He referred to one name found on both lists and said the 2023/2024 record contained neither a place of posting nor an allowance amount for that person.
Over 11 months, deductions from the individual totalled GH¢7,150, equivalent to GH¢650 per month. The remaining GH¢715 from the allowance was paid to Marine Ventures, which had been contracted to supply clothing.
Cross-examination, led by the defence lawyer Gary Nimako Marfo, was adjourned until Thursday, November 12. Detective Sergeant Woode’s evidence has not yet been challenged, and the court has made no findings.
A constitutional challenge brought by Ms Oware-Mensah’s lawyers against the trial was dismissed by the Supreme Court in May.
