NSS Scandal: I will not tolerate any excuses – Judge reacts to Gifty Oware’s absence

The High Court judge presiding over the trial of former Deputy Director of the National Service Authority, Gifty Oware-Mensah, has asserted that she would not tolerate any excuses during the proceedings.

Justice Audrey Kocuvi-Tay said this after the lawyer for Mrs Oware-Mensah, who has been charged with multiple criminal counts due to her involvement in the NSA scandal, said she could not appear in court because she is unwell. Mrs Oware-Mensah was supposed to be in court on Friday, October 17, 2025. But her lawyer, Gary Nimako, produced a medical report to support the claim that she is indisposed. He told the court that he only became aware of Mrs Oware-Mensah’s condition today.

Justice Kocuvi-Tay said she was not “happy” with the absence of Mrs Oware-Mensah.

“I hope that we don’t have these issues of one person being sick or the other,” she said.

She added that “if the investigator was present, I would [have] order[ed] an investigation into this so-called medical report.”

She made this point firmly because Mr Nimako and his assigns had been in court for several hours before the case was called. In fact, Mr Nimako and his assigns left the court at around 11:30 AM after complaining about the delay, only to return an hour later and to produce a medical report that suggested Mrs Oware-Mensah is unwell.

The Director for Public Prosecution, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, counsel for the state, requested to see a copy of the report. After reading it, she said the accused was granted two days off. Based on that, she asked the court to adjourn the case to the following week.

“In the report, she has been given two days off. If it is inclusive of today, then any day next week available will be okay,” she told the court.

After the judge expressed her displeasure, he adjourned the case to Wednesday, October 22, 2025.

On Monday, October 13, 2025, the Attorney-General charged Mrs Oware-Mensah with five counts, including stealing, willfully causing financial loss to the state, and money laundering.

The A-G stated that Mrs Oware-Mensah created 9,934 fictitious names in the NSA database and utilised her private company, Blocks of Life Consult, to secure a GH¢31.5 million loan from the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).

According to the fact sheets, she claimed her company had supplied goods on a hire-purchase basis to national service personnel. However, investigators found that the names were fictitious and no goods had been supplied.

Funds from the loan were reportedly paid into her company’s account and later transferred to other firms linked to her, causing a total loss of GH¢38,458,248.87 to the state.

Background

Earlier this year, The Fourth Estate published an exposé that uncovered large-scale corruption within the NSA. The investigation revealed the padding of ghost names in the NSA’s database and manipulation of the posting schemes that caused the government to disburse millions of cedis in allowances to service personnel who existed only on paper.

Beyond exposing the existence of ghost names, the publication also raised serious concerns about value-for-money, data security, and the institutional integrity of the Centralised Service Management Platform (CSMP), also known as the Metric App, which was used to manage postings and payments.

Following The Fourth Estate’s revelations, the Office of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice initiated its own probe. The Attorney-General’s investigation confirmed widespread financial irregularities, revealing that top executives of the NSA, in collusion with private-sector vendors, had mismanaged more than GH¢548 million through fraudulent entries and ghost names.