The National Service Secretariat (NSS) says it is surprised at reports that the names of the non-existent national service personnel involved in the GH¢7.9 million allowance scam, were generated at its headquarters.
The Daily Graphic reported on Wednesday that an investigation by the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) had revealed that 22,612 non-existent service persons in more than 100 districts across the country in July had each been paid an allowance of GH¢350 a month for a year.
The report stated that the ghost names are distributed by the NSS Headquarters to its regional directors, who also distribute them to the district national service directors.
[contextly_sidebar id=”uuCxsQfnGTRIKPIiDGKPRuVj4PMexVcK”]The paper also reported that 20 district directors of the NSS had been picked up for their alleged roles in the scam.
The Public Relations Officer of the NSS, Ambrose Entsiwah Jnr, said he was surprised about the reports of the involvement of the personnel at the headquarters of the Secretariat in the scam.
“Sure it does [surprise me]. I don’t know who may have done that, but this is not an institutionalised method of operations. But if it is the case, then someone might have done that. Officially we do not sit down and plan to generate pin codes and send to the regions for distribution to the districts. But if people have been picked up the certainly we will get to the bottom of the issue,” he said.
High-ranking officials of the NSS are also alleged to have offered GH¢200,000 and other items including smocks, tubers of yam, laptops and goats to BNI investigators to conceal the
However, Mr. Entsiwah stated that the NSS had not been officially presented with a report of the investigation of the BNI yet and, as such, he was unable to confirm or deny the claims.
“I’ve been in touch with the Executive Director who also confirmed that he had been informed, unofficially though. As to whether this is true or not it will be unfair on my part to say that it is not true, I cannot say that. I am not in a position to say what happened as we have not been officially informed”
He confirmed that the Secretariat had been aware of a BNI investigation into their payment policies of national service personnel.
“As a scheme we are aware that the national security was investigating the activities of the scheme specifically with regards to our finances and the payment of our allowances to service personnel. We believe strongly that they [BNI] have done their work and they are yet to submit their formal report to us.
“We have not cited the report, but that does not mean that we are disputing or doubting what they have discovered report. So let’s wait for the conclusion of the investigation and we will get to what actually happened,” he added.
By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana