The Accra High Court has granted bail of GH¢10 million to Gifty Oware‑Mensah, the former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA).
Her bail followed her appearance before the court on October 22, where she was officially charged with five counts, including willfully causing financial loss to the state, theft, money laundering, and abusing her public office for personal gain.
The charges stem from accusations of mismanagement and diversion of state funds during her time in office at the NSA.
The Authority itself has recently come under heavy scrutiny after a verification exercise revealed major discrepancies in its payroll. Out of more than 180,000 names listed as service personnel, only about 98,000 were confirmed as legitimate.
The rest were allegedly “ghost names,” through which approximately GH¢653 million is believed to have been fraudulently drained from state resources.
In a new development, the Attorney-General disclosed that a forensic audit by the Auditor-General has uncovered that the total amount lost in the “ghost names” scandal is actually GH¢2.2 billion—far exceeding the earlier estimate of GH¢548 million.
The Attorney-General has indicated that the charge sheets will be revised to reflect these updated findings.
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