Payroll fraud at NSS: Board can't be held liable; member

A member of the Board of Directors of the National Service Scheme says the current board is not liable for the rot in the scheme.

The Board last week directed top management of the Scheme including the National Coordinator, Alhaji Imoro Alhassan to step aside to allow investigations into allegations of fraud regarding the payment of nearly Ghȼ8 million allowance to non-existent service personnel in July 2014 among many others.

Legal practitioner, Samson Lardy Anyenini has warned, that the board of the National Service Scheme (NSS) may be liable for aiding and abetting the scandal that hit the scheme.

Speaking however, on the Midday News on Joy FM Monday, October 6, 2014 a member of the Board, Isaac Annan Riverson insists ongoing investigations into the scheme by the Bureau of National Investigations, was necessitated by developments that took place in the scheme under the tenure of the previous board.

According to Mr. Annan Riverson, the current Board assumed office in December 2013, a period when the so-called ghost postings had been done and payments into those accounts were in progress. 

“The issue that has out in the public domain has to do with postings that were done long before this board came into being…In December 2013 when this board came place these postings had already been done,” Mr. Annan told Francesca Kakra Forson.

He said the issue was brought to the notice of the previous Board whose investigative reports have uncovered some of the concerns that are being discussed in public.   

That notwithstanding Mr. Annan Riverson noted, the current Board, chaired by Mrs. Gifty Mahama also commenced investigations into the scheme but President John Mahama preferred the BNI to handle it which they have agreed to.

“We are prepared and we are ready to act decisively to ensure that other public servants… We are in support of the investigations that are being carried by the BNI, he added.

In other developments, Joy News has learnt that the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), has released some of the 23 District Directors of the National Service Scheme (NSS) who were arrested last week in connection with alleged fraud at the secretariat.

The officials, including the Ga South District Director, are said to have been asked to home after spending some time in BNI cell.

It is perhaps the biggest scandal to have been unearthed within the scheme that engages graduates from the nation's tertiary institutions.

Investigations continue as government prepares to prosecute those found culpable.

  Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Jerry Tsatro Mordy | [email protected]