Court Seizes Gifty Oware-Mensah’s Passport Over GH¢38m NSS Scandal

Former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Mensah, has pleaded not guilty to charges of stealing and causing financial loss to the state amounting to over GH¢38 million.

Appearing before an Accra High Court on Wednesday, October 22, the former NSA official, seen with a bandaged left wrist and dressed in a multicolored shirt with a black scarf, denied all five counts, including stealing, willfully causing financial loss to the Republic, using public office for profit, and money laundering.

According to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mrs. Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, investigations revealed that the accused allegedly manipulated the NSA’s “marketplace” platform and presented 9,934 ghost names to the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to secure a loan totaling GH¢78 million. Of this, GH¢38,458,248.87 was lost to the state.

Court correspondent Murtala Inusah reports that prominent NPP figures, including former General Secretary Samuel Boadu and MP for Asante Akyem Ralph Opoku Adusei, were in court as defense counsel Nana Banyin Ackon argued for bail on behalf of the accused.

Per court documents, Oware-Mensah, who oversaw finance, audit, and procurement at the NSA, approached ADB in 2022, claiming her company, Blocks of Life Consult, had an agreement with the NSA to supply goods to national service personnel on hire purchase.

She allegedly used the falsified list of over 9,000 names to secure the facility, which was channeled into an escrow account before being transferred into her company’s account. Investigators say the supposed beneficiaries never existed, and no goods were supplied.