Jessica
A sophisticated fraud plan purportedly headed by Gifty Oware-Mensah has been exposed by Attorney General and Justice Minister Dr. Dominic Ayine. It involves the exploitation of National Service plan (NSS) allowances in order to obtain a loan.
Dr. Ayine stated that investigations into the incident have been finished and that legal processes are about to start during a press conference in Accra today, Friday, June 13, on the government’s anti-corruption program, Operation Recover All Loots (ORAL), which focuses on the National Service Authority.
He said, “Our investigations disclose that several ghost names were deliberately added to the lists submitted to vendors, falsely representing the number of service personnel”.
He clarified that some NSS officials went to the vendors to collect the extra money after they got exorbitant payments from these fictitious names:
“Their directors and employees would get in touch with the vendors whose accounts had been paid, meet with them, and collect the extra funds that had been added to the vendor’s payment after these vendors finally received the payment.”
Dr. Ayine also revealed:
For example, we have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that some of the suspects, including Gaise Nyarko and Oteng, gave the money to suspect Osei Asibey Antwi in cash after they had collected it, and occasionally they even deposited it into his bank account.
He described a larger fraudulent plan that was purportedly orchestrated by former NSA Deputy Executive Director Gifty Oware-Mensah. “Some directors, like Gifty Oware-Mensah, devised and carried out a very detailed plan using NSS allowances as security to obtain a loan of about 30,698,218.69 from ADB, at an interest rate of 23 percent,” the Attorney General said.
According to Dr. Ayine, Mrs. Oware-Mensah used other people’s information to illegally register a business called Blocks of Life Consult without their consent or knowledge:
“She registered a business called Blocks of Life Consult using other people’s information without their knowledge or consent to achieve this outcome.”
He further mentioned that she used Akwasi Ofori Mintah to propose the business to ADB and that she had her husband, Mr. Peter Mensah, a lawyer, act as the company’s representative:
“She recruited her husband, Mr. Peter Mensah, a lawyer, to serve as one of the directors or representatives of the aforementioned company, and she presented Blocks of Life Consult to an ADB official through the person of Akwasi Ofori Mintah.”
According to reports, Oware-Mensah told ADB that the business specialized in providing household goods to service workers and suggested a repayment plan that involved income deductions:
“She informed ADB that the business specialized in providing home appliances to National Service members and suggested that ADB provide funding to the business so that it could provide these items on a hire-purchase basis, with the NSS managing the deduction and repayment.”
Notwithstanding the agreement, the Attorney General said:
“There was no indication that Blocks of Life was a registered vendor on the Authority’s marketplace.”
According to investigations, Oware-Mensah allegedly embezzled money using 9,934 ghost names in just two years of employment. Dr. Ayine attested to:
“Ghost names totaling 9,934 were used by suspect Gifty Oware-Mensah to embezzle the aforementioned funds.”
He went on to say that ADB had moved the loan amount into the firm’s account and subsequently into four different corporate accounts.
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