Gifty Oware trial: Investigator tells court 63,673 faceless names received allowances for no work done
A fourth prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of Gifty Oware-Mensah, a former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), has told the Accra High Court that 63,673 faceless names on the NSA central management system received monthly allowances for no work done.
A fourth prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of Gifty Oware-Mensah, a former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), has told the Accra High Court that 63,673 faceless names on the NSA central management system received monthly allowances for no work done.
Detective Sergeant Collins Woode, who testified as the fourth prosecution witness (PW4), said the names were identified during an analysis of the authority’s database and were found on the system’s banned list despite receiving allowances.
He said the analysis of the content management system (CMS), which contained data obtained from the authority, revealed that payments were being made to service personnel as well as companies whose names appeared on the system.
Gifty Oware-Mensah is facing charges of stealing, willfully causing financial loss to the state, using public office for profit and money laundering in connection with an alleged financial loss of more than GH¢38 million to the state.
Faceless names
In court on November 11, 2026, Sergeant Woode explained that prospective service personnel were required to register on the CMS by providing their dates of birth, national identification cards and photographs before undergoing biometric verification at the regional level.
He said where discrepancies were found between a person’s photograph and date of birth, the system flagged the individual and placed the name on a banned list, which was retained in the system.
He added that personnel who successfully completed the registration and verification processes were required to download acceptance letters, obtain endorsements from their user agencies and returned to the regional level to be assigned codes to access the CMS.
He said personnel were also required to undertake monthly evaluations to qualify for their allowances.
“Before then, 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,” he told the court.
ADB hire-purchase arrangement
The witness said investigations into the CMS also revealed that some companies were receiving payments through the system, although payments were understood to be intended for service personnel.
He mentioned Marine Ventures, Brainwaves Enterprise and ADB Hire Purchase as some of the companies identified during the investigations.
According to him, Blocks of Life Consult was presented to the bank as a vendor in good standing with the NSA and required financing to purchase items for supply to about 10,000 service personnel.
He said the loan repayments were to be made through deductions at source from the allowances of the personnel.
The witness explained that an e-zwich account was opened for ADB to facilitate the repayments, based on lists of service personnel submitted to the bank by the accused person. This, he said, explained why ADB’s name appeared on the CMS instead of Blocks of Life Consult.
The investigator further told the court that a list obtained from ADB contained 9,934 names submitted by the accused person for the loan facility and its repayment during the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 service periods.
He said the investigators compared the names with those on the list of 63,673 alleged faceless persons identified in the CMS.
Using the figures one and zero to conduct the comparison, he said 7,324 names on the ADB list were also found on the alleged ghost list, while a further 2,610 were not.
To demonstrate the alleged irregularities, the witness used the name James Waja, which appeared on both lists submitted for the two service periods.
He said the 2023/2024 record did not contain a place of posting or an allowance amount for the individual.
The witness said the loan repayment option attached to the arrangement showed a total deduction of GH¢7,150 over 11 months, translating into GH¢650 monthly.
He further said investigations revealed that the balance between the GH¢715 allowance figure and the GH¢650 deduction was allocated to Marine Ventures, which had a contract with the NSA to supply clothing to service personnel.
Cross-examination was adjourned to November 12, 2026 to continue.
GraphicOnline
