The Deputy Director-General of the National Service Authority, Moses Dok Nach Kpeungu, has stated that the issue of “ghost names” on the national service payroll has been eliminated under the current leadership.
He explained that the Authority has introduced stricter verification measures to ensure that all personnel undergoing national service are properly validated at multiple stages—from the district level to the national level—before funds are released for payment.
Lt Col Kpeungu noted that the reforms are designed to strengthen accountability and safeguard public funds.
“We do monthly evaluations right from the institution and submit the form to the district level. At the district level, the district manager will confirm and evaluate, go through internal audit and from internal audit, it moves to the regional director. The regional director has a column to put remarks, and it moves from there to the head office. At head office, the deployment team will go through it, and then the auditors and accountants will check all the figures before it is sent to the Comptroller for the money to be released,” he explained.
He further disclosed that the reforms have significantly reduced payroll expenditure.
“Previously, the (national service) payroll for the government was about Ghc1.7 billion. Last year, when we took over and started this process (strict verification), we cut it down. As of last year (2025), we paid about GHS7 million,” he revealed.
Lt Col Kpeungu maintained that the strengthened verification system has addressed longstanding challenges associated with inflated payroll figures.
“Look, we made sure that ghost names are a thing of the past. We used to have a bloated national service personnel deployed, and there were non-existent national service personnel; that is why we have put up these rigorous processes that they must go through. It is not just a matter of sitting down and taking money at the end of the month,” he said.
The issue of ghost names on the payroll had previously been linked to allegations against former leadership of the Authority, which were said to have resulted in the loss of millions of cedis to the state.
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