The prosecution in the ongoing trial of former National Service Authority (NSA) Deputy Executive Director, Gifty Oware-Mensah, has presented evidence that 63,673 “ghost names” received monthly allowances despite rendering no National Service during the 2023 and 2024 service years.
The evidence was given by Detective Sergeant Collins Woode, a Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) investigator, who is the lead investigator and fourth prosecution witness in the case of Republic v. Gifty Oware-Mensah.
Led in evidence by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, the investigator took the Court through the findings of a forensic examination conducted on the National Service Authority’s Central Management System (CMS), the database responsible for validating and enrolling national service personnel and generating payrolls for the payment of allowances.
In his extensive evidence-in-chief, which was projected on a screen in open court, Detective Sergeant Woode presented and explained several Excel spreadsheets and other electronic documents containing the findings of the forensic investigation.
According to the witness, the analysis uncovered 63,673 “faceless names” on the CMS which had received allowances for work not done during the 2023 and 2024 service periods. He explained that these names had no verifiable identities but consistently appeared in the payment records.
The investigator further testified that the list of names used for the monthly disbursement of allowances was submitted to Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) by the accused person. He told the Court that investigations traced the payment list to the accused and established a connection between the insertion of the names into the CMS and the subsequent processing of payment vouchers.
He also explained that further investigations were conducted to verify the identification details associated with the names, which, according to him, were found to be fictitious.
The witness statement, together with its accompanying exhibits, was subsequently adopted by the Court as the witness’s evidence-in-chief.
Following the conclusion of his evidence-in-chief, Counsel for the accused person, Gary Nimako Marfo, commenced cross-examination. However, he managed to put only four questions to the witness before proceedings ended for the day.
The Court has scheduled an extended sitting for Thursday, November 12, 2026, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., to allow for further cross-examination.
Detective Sergeant Woode is the fourth and final prosecution witness. The State is expected to close its case following the conclusion of his cross-examination, after which the Court will consider whether the prosecution has established a prima facie case requiring the accused person to open her defence.
