By Grace Zigah
The trial of former Deputy Director General of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Aboagye, took another significant turn on Thursday after the Authority’s former Head of Accounts, Eric Nyarko, told the High Court that he neither generated nor approved the data used under the controversial Agricultural Development Bank (ADB)-National Service hire purchase scheme.
Appearing as the third prosecution witness, Nyarko sought to distance himself from the preparation of the list of beneficiaries, insisting that the information was generated and verified elsewhere before it reached his office.
During cross-examination by counsel for the accused, Nyarko testified that the data originated from the NSA’s Information Technology consultant, Samuel Korley, and was transmitted under the instructions of Gifty Oware-Aboagye.
“I only received processed data. What I mean is that the data had been generated already right from the accused person who had the approval authority, and she is the person who has overall access for proper verification,” he told the court.
Nyarko acknowledged that he signed the master agreement between the National Service Authority and the Agricultural Development Bank, but clarified that he did so only as a witness in his official capacity as Head of Accounts and not as the originator or approver of the beneficiary data.
Explaining the agreement, he said the Authority’s responsibility was to deduct monthly loan repayments from the allowances of National Service Personnel (NSPs) who had benefited from the hire purchase programme.
According to the witness, Gifty Oware-Aboagye informed him during a meeting in January 2023 that she had negotiated a loan arrangement with ADB to enable National Service Personnel to acquire household items through a hire purchase scheme.
Nyarko said he advised that the programme should instead be integrated into the Authority’s existing digital marketplace platform, where private vendors had already been registered to offer similar products on hire purchase.
However, he testified that the accused informed him that the arrangement with ADB was a special agreement and that the loan would be secured using a list of National Service Personnel who had expressed interest in purchasing the items.
The witness further told the court that Samuel Korley, whom he identified as the NSA’s IT consultant and manager of the Central Management System (CMS), later transmitted the data to him.
He described Korley’s responsibilities as overseeing virtually every aspect of the National Service digital platform, including the generation of service PINs, deployment of personnel and management of the Authority’s marketplace system.
According to Nyarko, Korley emailed him on January 20, 2023, with a list containing 6,623 National Service Personnel said to have signed up for the ADB hire purchase programme.
He testified that after reviewing the document in his capacity as Head of Accounts, he forwarded 5,890 names to Gifty Oware-Aboagye.
When defence counsel questioned why he forwarded the list, the witness responded that he acted strictly on the instructions of the accused person.
Nyarko also rejected suggestions that he personally verified the identities of the listed beneficiaries.
He explained that his responsibility was limited to checking the National Service identification numbers contained in the electronic data received through the Central Management System.
Oware-Mensah is alleged to have misappropriated a total of GH¢38,458,248.87 between February 2022 and March 2024 while overseeing finance, audit, and procurement at the NSA.
“As an accountant, I verify the data by their National Service IDs, and because of the structure of the CMS, the accountant always receives soft copies of the data,” he said.
He added that Gifty Oware-Aboagye had assured him that the Central Management System was capable of performing its own validation checks and generating credible information, leaving him with no reason to question the authenticity of the data provided.
The witness further disclosed that some of the instructions relating to the processing of the lists were communicated through WhatsApp, describing the messaging platform as a practical tool for handling large volumes of electronic data.
He also revealed that when the processed list was returned to him by the accused, it had been updated to include the specific products to be supplied, their prices, monthly repayment amounts and repayment periods assigned to each beneficiary.
In one of the most striking moments of his testimony, Mr. Nyarko explained why he had begun referring to the beneficiaries as “supposed National Service Personnel.”
According to him, officials of the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) later invited him for questioning and informed him that several names captured in the standing orders he had prepared were ghost names or non-existent National Service Personnel who nonetheless received payments.
“That is the reason I’m referring to them now as supposed NSPs,” he told the court.
Background
The case forms part of the wider National Service Scheme (NSS) ghost names scandal, one of Ghana’s biggest public sector corruption investigations.
Investigations uncovered allegations that thousands of fictitious and ineligible names had been inserted into the National Service payroll, allowing fraudulent payments to be made to individuals who never undertook national service.
Following investigations by the Office of the Attorney-General, the alleged financial loss was revised upward to more than GH¢2.2 billion, prompting criminal prosecutions against several former officials of the National Service Authority.
Gifty Oware-Aboagye has pleaded not guilty to charges including stealing, causing financial loss to the state, using public office for profit and money laundering.
The prosecution continues to call witnesses as it seeks to establish that senior officials and collaborators orchestrated fraudulent schemes involving ghost names and irregular financial transactions under the National Service Authority.
