The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, has revealed that a former Chief Executive of the National Service Scheme (NSS) paid a Member of Parliament (MP) to suppress the ghost names scandal.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, March 24, 2025, Dr. Ayine disclosed that his office had obtained evidence of financial transactions involving top executives of the NSS, vendors, and private individuals.
“Indeed, we now have evidence of payments that were made into the accounts of the top executives of the National Service by vendors, private vendors, and staff of the scheme.
“We also have evidence that in November 2024… the CEO of the National Service Scheme and others paid a Ghanaian MP to kill the story in the media, and to defend them. Now, this is a developing story, and more of it will come out very soon,” he stated.
The Attorney General, however, did not disclose the identities of the individuals involved.
Investigations into the NSS uncovered that previous officials had bypassed mandatory validation processes, allowing thousands of nonexistent names to be added to the payroll.
This scheme facilitated the siphoning of millions of Ghana cedis meant for national service personnel.
The irregularities were detected during a Ministry of Finance-led headcount of active National Service personnel as part of efforts to clear allowance arrears dating back to August 2024.
Following the verification exercise, GH₵226,019,224 was disbursed to pay 98,145 personnel—far lower than the 180,030 names initially submitted.
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