IMANI Center for Policy and Education’s Volunteer Associate, Kay Codjoe, has issued a strong call for accountability and reform following the staggering revelations of corruption at the National Service Authority (NSA),
He described the scandal as a tragic reflection of how deeply entrenched systemic rot has become within Ghana’s public institutions.
He warned that the NSS ghost payroll scandal must not become “another headline that fades into dust.” Instead, it should serve as a defining moment for Ghana to rebuild accountability systems and restore public trust.
“The Republic must recover what was lost and fix what failed. We cannot afford to normalize corruption. Biometric verification must be mandatory for all public disbursements. Audit reports must be made public. Bank verifications must include real-time data checks, not spreadsheets alone”.
Kay Codjoe
He emphasized that if decisive reforms are not implemented, “the next heist is already in motion.” According to him, corruption in Ghana has evolved with technology—moving from paper-based fraud to digital manipulation—and requires equally sophisticated oversight mechanisms to detect and prevent abuse.
“The ghosts have learnt accounting, and the living have learnt silence,” he said sharply, warning that without genuine institutional reform, “the names will change, the numbers will grow, and the ghosts will march again—silent, digital, and deadly.”
The scandal, involving former Executive Director Osei Assibey Antwi and his deputy Gifty Oware Mensah, has exposed what prosecutors described as one of the most audacious financial frauds in Ghana’s recent history.
Between February 2022 and March 2024, the National Service “marketplace”—a digital platform meant to offer goods and hire-purchase loans to service personnel—was turned into a conduit for looting public funds through the creation of thousands of fake identities.
Investigations revealed that 9,934 ghost names were used to siphon about GH¢31 million from the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), money that was ostensibly meant to support genuine service personnel.
“The purpose was noble—to make life easier for young graduates—but the result was cynical: the goods never came, but the money did”.
Kay Codjoe
According to the Attorney-General’s charge sheet, signed by Dr. Dominic Ayine, the offenses include stealing, causing financial loss to the state, using public office for profit, and money laundering.
The document traced GH¢31,502,091.40 to Blocks of Life Consult, a company allegedly controlled by Gifty Oware Mensah. Another GH¢22.9 million reportedly flowed to Amaecom Global, where she served as a director. In total, over GH¢653 million has been lost between the marketplace scheme and a parallel payroll fraud operation.
Betrayal of Trust
Codjoe described the scandal as “a betrayal of trust and a textbook case of how weak systems enable strong theft.” He noted that Ghana’s institutions, designed to safeguard the public purse, have become increasingly complicit through neglect, poor oversight, and political protectionism.
“This is not just about two people. It is about how power and trust can merge into theft. It is about how weak controls, lazy audits, and political patronage create room for public officers to act like private landlords of state funds.
“How did one man and one woman gain so much control over a national scheme without detection? Where were the auditors, the financial controllers, the institutional conscience?”.
Kay Codjoe
The marketplace scandal, he said, is only part of a larger institutional collapse that took place under the leadership of Osei Assibey Antwi, who is accused of authorizing payments totaling over GH¢500 million to non-existent service personnel.
Auditors discovered that 60,000 ghost names were paid allowances, with GH¢8.2 million directly deposited into an e-zwich account registered in Antwi’s own name—even as he was listed as a volunteer under the same scheme he was paid to supervise.
“The irony is painful. Real national service personnel wake up before dawn to catch a trotro, borrow to eat, and pray their allowances aren’t delayed. Yet, somewhere in the system, ghost workers—who never lived, never served, never existed—collected their sweat in bulk payments.”
Kay Codjoe
Codjoe argued that Ghana’s failure to prevent such massive corruption is not due to a lack of laws or institutions but a culture of selective enforcement and collective amnesia.
“Every few years, we dig up another scandal and act surprised. Then the same script follows: reports ignored, audits delayed, prosecutions stretched until outrage dies. Silence has become state policy”.
Kay Codjoe
Codjoe’s remarks underscore the broader public frustration with Ghana’s governance failures and recurring corruption scandals across key state agencies—from the National Service Scheme to the Ghana Education Service, National Health Insurance Scheme, and local assemblies.
He called for a national audit revolution, demanding real-time monitoring, data integration across public systems, and zero tolerance for political interference in anti-corruption efforts.
He added that restoring confidence in Ghana’s governance structures will require not only prosecuting offenders but also strengthening preventive systems.
The NSS ghost payroll and marketplace scandal remains under active prosecution, but for many Ghanaians, it represents something far deeper—a mirror reflecting the nation’s struggle to protect integrity in public service.
Whether the system reforms or merely replaces faces, as Codjoe cautions, will determine if Ghana’s institutions can ever rise above their ghosts.
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