Felix Gyamfi, the National Service Authority's (NSA) acting director general, has promised extensive measures to remove phantom identities from the authority's payroll.
He announced that no graduate would be permitted to do national service if they did not have a Ghana Card or accreditation from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC).
"The new measures are not just policy tweaks but a firm commitment to ending the longstanding problem of payroll fraud that has plagued the National Service Scheme for years," Mr. Gyamfi stated in an exclusive interview on Joy FM's GhanaConnect.
"You cannot perform national service if you do not have a Ghana Card," he said. "A high-level form of identification, the Ghana Card prevents people with dubious identities from accessing the system."
On February 12, 2025, President John Mahama ordered the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) to launch a probe into the National Service Authority's (NSA) activities right away after 81,885 probable phantom identities were found on its payroll.
In order to settle allowance arrears that date back to August 2024, the Finance Ministry issued the decision after finding disparities after a headcount of active National Service troops.
According to the Authority's Acting Director, the organisation is also strengthening its eligibility requirements to guarantee that only graduates from schools with the necessary accreditation are hired.
You shouldn't be doing national duty if you attend a school that isn't officially recognised by GTEC. He stressed, "These are institutions of questionable character."
He claims that many of these protections have always been in place but have been disregarded in the past because of ineffective leadership and a lack of determination to implement them.
Other actions mentioned are:
Required biometric validation: Before wages are finalised, service members must physically visit NSA headquarters once a month to undergo biometric validation.
Strict adherence to age and registration requirements: Individuals who circumvent the official registration procedure or over the service age restriction will be immediately rejected.
Live verification procedures: Employees will not be paid until they have been physically checked and approved by NSA personnel.
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