In the lead-up to the 2024 elections, Ghana’s former Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, touted the Ghana Card as a major tool in eliminating ghost names from government payrolls, including the National Service Scheme (NSS).

However, a new investigation by The Fourth Estate has revealed that despite the integration of the Ghana Card into the NSS registration system, tens of thousands of ghost names were still smuggled in.

The alleged fraudulent scheme reportedly exploited a loophole that allowed “private candidates”—graduates who missed their service in previous years—to register.

This process was manipulated by inserting fake identities and assigning them to various institutions.

“The system was supposed to prevent this kind of fraud, but those behind the scheme found a way around it,” said Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of The Fourth Estate revealed on The KeyPoints on February 15.

Documents obtained by the investigative team show that multiple ghost names were linked to the same fake student IDs and Ghana Card numbers.

“Dr Bawumia said the Ghana Card could identify Ghost Names from any digitalised system. However, the fraud was well-calculated, and we even found instances where the same name appeared over 200 times,” Braimah revealed.

The revelations have led to fresh concerns about the effectiveness of Ghana’s digital identity system in preventing payroll fraud.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Mr Felix Gyamfi, has described Mr Sulemana’s revelation as not wholly accurate.

“What Sulemana is showing is not factual, there is ongoing investigation to establish culpability, but it is not done yet,” Mr Gyamfi told 3news in a phone discussion.

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The post Alleged NSS fraud: Bawumia’s description of Ghana Card as ‘Ghost names buster’ exposed – Braimah first appeared on 3News.

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