Alleged NSS Payroll Fraud: Osei-Assibey, Mustapha Usif Fight  Back …Say Fourth Estate Accusations Are Baseless And Misleading

Former leaders of the National Service Authority (NSA) have strongly refuted allegations of corruption made in a recent investigative report by The Fourth Estate, describing the claims as baseless and misleading.

In a press release co-signed by former NSA Director-General Osei Assibey Antwi and former Executive Director, Mustapha Ussif, the two officials argued that the publication is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the NSA’s enrolment, verification and payment processes.

Thus, The Fourth Estate report suggests large-scale financial mismanagement within the NSA, including the inflation of budgetary figures, the presence of “ghost” names on the payroll and the enrolment of ineligible personnel.

However, the former officials categorically denied these claims, stating that the report selectively omits crucial details to create a false impression of wrongdoing.

“The publication 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.

Addressing the claim that the NSA presented inflated figures to Parliament, the former managers explained that the investigative team failed to consider additional enrolment cycles, including nursing and teacher trainees, which are conducted separately from the general postings.

They argued that had The Fourth Estate conducted due diligence, it would have recognised the legitimacy of these numbers.

Regarding allegations of “ghost names” on the payroll, they emphasised that while initial postings may reflect a higher number of personnel, the NSA’s strict verification process ensures that only eligible individuals receive payments.

They pointed out that payments are handled through the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), which performs monthly validations before any disbursements.

“It is, therefore, shocking that, considering the standing of The Fourth Estate as a media outlet, they would rely on entry data without verifying the actual number of personnel paid each year through GhIPSS,” the statement added.

Furthermore, The Fourth Estate’s investigation also suggested that the NSA’s database contained personnel with foreign photographs and incorrect ID numbers, implying fraudulent activity.

However, Osei Assibey Antwi and Mustapha Ussifclarified that initial enrolment data is submitted by educational institutions and private individuals, and errors in these records are common.

They stressed that such inconsistencies are usually detected during the NSA’s regional verification process, which involves biometric authentication.

“Any personnel failing verification remains in the system under the ‘banned,’ ‘on hold,’ or ‘pending’ category, making them ineligible for payment,” they explained, noting that most of the examples cited in the report fell into this category.

Despite their rejection of the report’s findings, the former NSA executives welcomed President John Dramani Mahama’s directive for an investigation into the matter.

“We are certain that the investigation will reveal that the true state of affairs is contrary to the contrived allegations by The Fourth Estate,” they stated.

They also called on journalists to uphold ethical reporting standards and conduct thorough research before publishing allegations that could tarnish reputations.

The following is the full press statement: Our attention has been drawn to a media publication by the Fourth Estate making several allegations against former officers of the National Service Authority.

The publication 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 wrong doing to former officers. We respond to the various claims as follows:

1. The publication claims that the figures submitted to parliament for budgetary purposes are significantly different from what is available to the public. Our checks reveal that the claim is palpably misleading as the Fourth Estate only relies on figures from the general posting done in September without including two (2) cohorts of Nursing trainees and one (1) cohort of Teacher Trainees.
2. It must be noted, that in addition to the general enrolment cycle by the Authority, the NSA in partnership with the Nursing and Midwifery Council runs an enrolment cycle for nurses with the same being done for teachers in partnership with the Teachers Council. The shortfalls in the figures are therefore accounted for from these other enrolment cycles. The claim by the Fourth Estate is therefore without any basis, which fact would have been apparent to them had the exercise any diligence in their purported investigations.
3. The Fourth Estate relies on the above disparity to claim that the NSA payroll has been padded with “Ghosts” because monies allocated by Parliament exceed verified postings. Instructively, submissions of personnel list to parliament for budgetary purposes are based on the total personnel posted by the Authority.

However, in practice, not all persons posted end up on the payroll owing to varying reasons including failing verification and failure to show up for the service.

4. The payroll is thus only activated following stringent verification processes and only personnel who pass the verification process are paid through the GhiPPS System, a Bank of Ghana subsidiary system. Even then, the payment is only made after monthly validations that confirm that personnel are at their respective 2 postings. Any surplus sums after payments by GhiPPS are left in the Authority’s account for subsequent use. The publication by Fourth Estate is therefore false in suggesting simply because monies allocated by parliament exceed verified postings, some “ghosts” are drawing pay.
5. The Fourth Estate further claims that the NSA system is full of people who are overaged, bear foreign pictures and wrong IDs. Based on these, the Fourth Estate concludes yet again, that these are ghosts drawing pay from the NSA. This is a clear misapprehension of the enrolment, verification and payment systems of the NSA. Educational Institutions provide an initial data of eligible persons for national service without any input from the Authority. Private persons are also entitled to register for national service with the Authority.
6. Such entry data is often ridden with several errors including the kind described by the Fourth Estate since there is no other data to cross-reference it with and unscrupulous persons always attempt to override the Authority’s system every enrolment cycle.

However, during the regional verification process, which all personnel are required to undergo in person, personnel provide identification information including Identification cards, facial biometric and finger biometric data.

This information is cross-referenced with the initial data submitted and personnel with inconsistent information are categorised as banned or made to pend, awaiting verification.

7. Any personnel failing verification remains in the system under the banned, on hold or pending category, but becomes ineligible to be paid hence does not draw from the payroll. Majority of rejections happen at this stage and in point of fact, the several images, allegations of foreign nationals and placeholder images provided by the Fourth Estate are within this category of fraudulent attempts to beat the NSA System.
8. It is, therefore, shocking that considering the standing of the Fourth Estate as a media outlet, they would rely on these entry data without ascertaining from GhiPPS (the paying entity), the actual number of personnel paid per year and whether any of these persons with such inconsistent information actually received allowances from the NSA.
9. This betrays the malicious intent of the purported investigation by the Fourth Estate, as merely calculated to hurriedly publish a sensational story to smear former officers, rather than diligently establish the facts as expected of a decent media house.
10. Throughout our tenure, we committed to implementing robust enrolment and verification mechanisms to reduce the occurrences of unscrupulous attempts to circumvent the system. One of such important systems was the development of a common portal and the generation of unique access codes to institutions for the submission of their enrolment data in order to reduce the likelihood of manipulation at the entry point.

The publication by the Fourth Estate must, therefore, be treated with the contempt it deserves as it is a manifest example of how the misapprehension of data and institutional processes may result in conclusions that misinform and mislead the general public.

We urge journalists to stay true to their creed and be thorough in their work to avoid publishing sensational stories that malign individuals without basis.

Finally, we welcome the directive by President Mahama for an investigation, as we are certain the investigation will reveal that the true state of affairs on the matters published are contrary to the contrived allegations by the Fourth Estate. Thank you.

SIGNED

1. Osei Assibey Antwi Former Director-General National Service Authority
2. Hon. Mustapha Ussif Former Executive Director

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