Former Directors-General of the National Service Authority (NSA), Osei Assibey Antwi and Mustapha Ussif, have strongly refuted allegations made in a recent report by the Fourth Estate, describing it as misleading and selectively presented.
The report accused the former NSA officials of irregularities in the enrolment, verification, and payment processes within the Authority.
In a press release issued on Tuesday, February 18, Assibey and Ussif criticized the publication, stating that it misrepresented the NSA’s procedures and deliberately omitted key information to imply wrongdoing.
“The report is laden with a misapprehension of the enrolment, verification, and payment processes of the National Service Authority, as well as selective omission of information, calculated to achieve contrived conclusions of imputing wrongdoing to former officers,” the statement read.
The Fourth Estate’s investigation claimed discrepancies between the figures submitted to Parliament for budgetary purposes and those released to the public. However, the former officials clarified that the publication relied only on general postings in September while ignoring two additional enrolment cycles for nursing and teacher trainees, conducted in collaboration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Teachers Council.
Addressing claims of “ghost” employees inflating the NSA payroll, they asserted that only personnel who pass strict verification processes are paid through the GhiPPS System, a Bank of Ghana subsidiary.
On allegations regarding overaged individuals, foreign photos, and incorrect IDs in the NSA database, they acknowledged initial data errors but emphasized that these are corrected during regional verification. Individuals with inconsistencies are either removed or placed under pending verification to prevent unauthorized payroll additions.
The former officials criticized the Fourth Estate for relying on entry data without verifying the actual number of personnel paid annually through GhiPPS, accusing the publication of sensationalism.
Calling for journalistic due diligence, they urged the media to avoid spreading misinformation that could unfairly damage reputations.
They also welcomed former President Mahama’s directive for an investigation, expressing confidence that a thorough probe would debunk the allegations and uphold the integrity of their administration.
