One hundred and thirty staff of the National Service Secretariat (NSS) have been interdicted over various acts of financial impropriety.
A statement from the Secretariat signed by Acting Executive Director, Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte, indicated, “The management of the National Service Scheme, on the advice of its Board, has, with immediate effect, interdicted an additional 130 staff of the Scheme on account of their involvement in financial malfeasance that bedeviled the operations of the Personnel Allowances Accounts in the 2013/2014 service year.”
He however, failed to disclose the names and designations of those affected by the action.
It brings to 165 the number of staff that have been interdicted in a space of one week.
The current batch of affected staff is mostly made up of district directors of the Scheme from the various regions who were allegedly found wanting for various financial malpractices.
The decision follows the receipt of the official report from the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) about the “financial malfeasance identified in the operations of the Personnel Allowances Accounts in the 2013/2014 service year.”
It was the first in a series of measures designed to ensure that the “appropriate disciplinary actions are taken to address the situation.”
Dr Kpessa-Whyte has however, given the assurance that each of the affected staff would be taken through disciplinary processes pertaining to all public servants, noting that “The Scheme’s administrative measures are without prejudice to any legal actions by the state in the fight against corruption and abuse of public office.”
Fresh Charges
State prosecutors last week preferred fresh charges against former Executive Director of the Scheme, Alhaji Alhassan Imoro, when they began the prosecution of 34 other persons implicated in the massive fraud that hit the National Service Scheme.
Alhaji Imoro was earlier arraigned before the Economic, Financial and Tax Division of an Accra High Court over allegations that he had from the months of September 2013 to July 2014, at the NSS headquarters in Accra, stolen GH¢86.9 million belonging to the state.
According to the prosecution, an amount of GH¢7.9 million was paid to 22,612 non-existent or ‘ghost’ service persons – a claim he has denied.
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