A technical and forensic audit of the National Service Authority (NSA) has revealed that former Director-General Osei Assibey Antwi was simultaneously registered as a volunteer while holding the highest office at the agency.
The audit, obtained exclusively by The Fourth Estate, indicates that during the 2022/2023 service year—roughly a year after assuming office—Mr. Assibey Antwi was designated as a volunteer, issued an EZWICH card (No. 1177042059), and officially posted to the Greater Accra region. Payroll records, however, show he was assigned to Kumawu Farms, a 200-acre mixed commercial farming project in the Ashanti Region established under his administration.
The report highlights that Mr. Assibey Antwi received GH¢516,000 monthly for 16 months, totaling GH¢8,256,000. To contextualize, this sum could have paid the monthly service allowance for 721 service personnel at the current rate of GH¢715.57.
The findings corroborate statements by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, who, during an update on Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) investigations, confirmed that Mr. Assibey Antwi personally received GH¢8,256,000 into the EZWICH account linked to him. The Attorney-General also noted that the card was recovered during searches of the former NSA executive’s residence.
This revelation follows earlier investigations by The Fourth Estate in November 2024, which exposed thousands of “ghost names” in NSA records, a practice that potentially cost the state millions of cedis. Prior to the publication of the initial report, NSA leadership secured a court injunction to block its release, prompting the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), which runs The Fourth Estate, to petition both the Office of the Special Prosecutor and Operation Recover All Loot.
Dr. Ayine publicly acknowledged the role of The Fourth Estate in laying the groundwork for investigations into fraudulent practices at the NSA, which have been estimated to have cost the state over GH¢548 million. “The now-famous National Service scandal…formed a major plank of the ORAL report. My office is extremely grateful to The Fourth Estate for the excellent foundational work that they did,” he said.
The audit raises serious questions about oversight, internal controls, and accountability mechanisms at the NSA, highlighting the need for strengthened governance to prevent similar abuses in the future.
