Gifty Oware-Mensah granted GHS10m bail in NSA scandal

Gifty Oware-Mensah, the former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), has been granted bail in the sum of GH¢10 million by the Accra High Court.

The bail was granted after Oware-Mensah appeared before the court on October 22, 2025, where she was formally charged with five offenses, including willfully causing financial loss to the state, stealing, money laundering, and using her public office for personal gain.

The charges stem from allegations of mismanagement and misappropriation of public funds during Oware-Mensah’s tenure at the NSA. In recent months, the NSA has come under intense scrutiny following a verification exercise that revealed a troubling discrepancy in its payroll.

While the NSA listed over 180,000 service personnel, only 98,000 were verified as legitimate, with the remaining names suspected to belong to "ghost personnel." It’s alleged that approximately GH¢653 million was siphoned from the state through these fraudulent entries.

Adding to the scandal, the Attorney-General recently disclosed that a forensic audit by the Auditor-General has found the total financial losses tied to the ghost names scandal to be GH¢2.2 billion, far exceeding the initial estimate of GH¢548 million.

The Attorney-General’s office has indicated that it will update the charge sheets to reflect these new figures.