The National Service Authority (NSA) has announced that recent internal investigations have uncovered irregularities within its system, leading to 8,105 personnel being flagged on the national service payroll. Of these, 1,840 individuals have been temporarily suspended while further investigations are carried out by the appropriate authorities.
At a press briefing held on Monday, December 15, the Authority’s Director-General, Ruth Dela Seddoh, stated that these irregularities were detected at three tertiary institutions: the University of Development Studies (UDS), Ghana Communication Technology University, and Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development.
“The number of students who have officially graduated from the schools, and we compare that with the number of students that they have submitted to us. And so when you do that, you realise that some schools are complicit in this whole thing, and I must emphasise that it is a whole huge cartel.
“Due to the outcome of a very detailed, thorough and comprehensive investigation, we made shocking discoveries that resulted in the flagging of 8,105 individuals in the system. Let me repeat, we made a shocking discovery that resulted in us flagging 8,105 individuals in the system, and 1,840 individuals have been completely suspended pending conclusion of further investigations by the security agencies.
“The investigations uncovered a number of serious irregularities being perpetuated in three tertiary institutions. University of Development Studies (UDS), Ghana Communications Technology University, Akenten Appiah Minka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development. The outcome of the investigation, 10 members of staff from the various institutions have been arrested and are under investigation with the security agencies.”
Addressing concerns about the shutdown of the portal after two extensions, six weeks after it was opened, she noted that the decision was necessary to allow for reposting, proper validation, and the verification of the physical presence of personnel at their assigned institutions, among other reasons.
The timeline was deliberately chosen and not arbitrary. For those who believe that closing the portal was a random decision, that was never our intention. The decision was made because we had many subsequent steps to complete after this phase.
The process was carefully structured, and enforcing the deadline was crucial for maintaining accurate deployment records, confirming the physical presence of personnel at their stations, and preventing ghost or fraudulent registrations. Following this validation, we planned to conduct a re-validation and facilitate the timely payment of allowances to verified personnel.
Source: Manuel Ayamah
