Former Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Osei Assibey Antwi, has been charged for causing financial loss of GHS500,861,744.02 to the state by authorising payments of allowances to over 60,000 non-existent national service personnel between August 2021 and February 2025.
He has also been charged with stealing GHS8,080,000 from the NSA while allegedly laundering another GHS8,256,000 from the Authority.
Former Deputy Executive Director of the NSA, Gifty Oware-Mensah, has also been charged for causing financial loss of GHS31,502,091.40 to the state.
She is also facing other charges, including using public office for profit and money laundering.
Osei Assibey
In the case of Osei Assibey, the charge sheet alleges that he dishonestly appropriated GHS3,612,000 in August 2023, GHS516,000 in September 2023, another GHS516,000 in October of same year, GHS1,032,000 in December 2023 and another GHS2,064,000 in May 2024.
He has also been accused of causing financial loss of GHS8,256,000 to the state by authorising transfers from the NSA’s Control Account to e-zwich card number 1177042059, which is registered in his name.
Again, Osei Assibey is accused of laundering the GHS8,256,000 by diverting it into his e-zwich account knowing the money formed part of unlawful activity.
He is also facing charges of causing financial loss of GHS55 million belonging to the NSA by authorising the withdrawal of the said amount from Project Account number 1018631542212 for the Kumawu Farm Project ‘without expending it on the project.’
Gifty Oware-Mensah
Gifty Oware-Mensah, on the other hand, is facing charges of causing financial loss of GHS6,956,157.47 by causing the state to pay the said amount as interest to the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) on a GHS31,502,091.40 loan inappropriately authorised for Blocks of Life Consult, which she benefitted from.
She has also been accused of laundering GHS31,502,091.40 by transferring it from the NSA higher-purchase escrow account with ADB to Blocks of Life Consult ‘for the purpose of disguising the illicit origin of the money, knowing it to be proceeds of crime.’
Facts
The prosecution’s brief fact indicate that the NSA established the ‘marketplace’ platform to alleviate the financial burden of national service personnel who are posted to a variety of sectors under the Authority.
This online platform, it says, allows the personnel to apply for loans and purchase products on hire-purchase. Consequently, the NSA registered a limited number of entities as merchant, vendors on the platform to offer these services to the personnel.
It says the vendors who rendered the services are paid by monthly deductions from the personnel’s allowance at source, until the items purchased or loan amount received by them are completely paid for.
The fact states that Gifty Oware-Mensah was responsible for the oversight of the Finance, Audit, and Procurement Departments and was solely responsible for the approval of merchants onto the NSA marketplace, in addition to overseeing the general administration of the NSA.
Between February 2022 and March 2024, Gifty Oware-Mensah allegedly approached officials of ADB and informed them that the NSA had signed an agreement with her company, Blocks of Life Consult (BLC), to sell products on hire-purchase to national service personnel.
‘She claimed that she required a loan of GHS78,139,910.00 to support her business,’ the facts said.
The accused, in October 2022, wrote to the bank and submitted a list of approximately 9,934 ghost names that she generated from the NSA Central Management System, claiming she had supplied goods on hire-purchase to the personnel and wanted to use their allowances as collateral for the facility.
ADB, however, told her that they could not approve the loan of GHS78,139,910.00 as it would mean they would be deducting the full allowances of the supposed personnel.
She later agreed with the bank on the principal sum of GHS31,502,091.40 and an interest of GHS6,956,157.47 to be paid through source deductions of the 9,934 personnel allowance over 11 months.
An escrow account was established with ADB to retain the loan on behalf of the NSA, and the loan amount of GHS31,502,091.40 was disbursed into the account.
It was subsequently transferred into Blocks of Life Consult on Gifty Oware-Mensah’s instruction out of which she allegedly transferred GHS22,925,518.69 to Amaecom Global Company, of which she was a director, and the remaining amount to three other companies.