Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic AyineAttorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, has blown the lid off a sprawling corruption racket within the National Service Authority (NSA), revealing that over GH¢548 million in public funds were siphoned off through a sophisticated ghost name payroll scheme.
Addressing the media on Friday, June 13, 2025, Dr. Ayine provided a chilling update on the government’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign under the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) initiative.
The revelations come in response to President John Dramani Mahama’s recent directive to the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) to probe deep-rooted rot at the NSA, after the discovery of more than 8,000 non-existent service personnel fraudulently listed on the payroll.
Dr. Ayine described the findings as nothing short of systemic criminality, exposing how high-ranking officials within the Authority, appointed during the Akufo-Addo administration, colluded with external actors to defraud the state.
“In the 2022/2023 service year, 350,926,977.12 was lost to the state. For the 2023/2024 service year, 32,881,157.07 was lost to the republic. In total, as stated, we lost about 548,333,542.65 to the criminal enterprise perpetrated by these executives, directors, and staff, as well as the service providers in the market,” he said.
The Attorney General detailed how these ghost names were systematically inserted into the NSA’s payroll system by insiders, allowing them to siphon funds under the guise of paying legitimate personnel.
“The criminal enterprise that resulted in the loss of this colossal sum of money involved the creation of ghost names in the NSA payroll system by some directors and staff, which was subsequently exploited to misappropriate state funds for their gain,” he stated.
Dr. Ayine stressed that prosecutions will follow swiftly, adding that the government is determined to claw back every stolen cedi and hold all perpetrators accountable.
The investigation marks one of the largest public payroll frauds in Ghana’s history and signals the Mahama administration’s aggressive push to dismantle entrenched corruption and restore integrity to public service systems.
