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In 2025, The Fourth Estate‘s work made an immense impact. Across government institutions, public funds, and social justice spectrums, our investigations exposed corruption, waste, abuse of power, and abandonment of responsibility. These stories triggered audits, prosecutions and direct relief to victims.
The National Service Ghost Names Scandal
Early in the year, The Fourth Estate exposed large-scale corruption at the National Service Authority. Our investigation uncovered the padding of thousands of ghost names in the Authority’s database. These ghost names were allegedly used to manipulate postings and siphon billions of cedis in allowances.
The investigation, dubbed the NSS Scandal, went beyond ghost names. It raised red flags about value for money, data security, and the integrity of the Centralised Service Management Platform (CSMP) known as the Metric App. The CSMP is used to recruit and post service personnel.
Following our publication, the Ministry of Youth Development and Empowerment suspended the Central Management System used by the Authority. This opened the door for a full technical and forensic audit, and a new platform was subsequently deployed.
The Office of the Attorney General launched an independent investigation, relying on evidence from The Fourth Estate’s investigations. Their findings confirmed widespread financial irregularities. Senior executives of the Authority were allegedly found to have colluded with private vendors. Initial losses were put at GH¢548 million.
On October 22, 2025, the Attorney General, Dr Dominic Ayine, revised the figure. Total losses now stand at GH¢2.2 billion. Eight suspects have since approached the Attorney General to negotiate plea bargains. Criminal charges have been filed against the former Executive Director of the Authority, Osei Assibey Antwi, and his deputy, Gifty Oware Mensah.
SML Scandal
On June 2, 2025, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) triggered the process for the extradition of the former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta. This was after the OSP had secured a warrant for his arrest and placed him on Interpol’s red notice alert.
The OSP is demanding the return of Ken Ofori-Atta, who served under the erstwhile government, to Ghana to respond to questions relating to the anti-corruption institution’s ongoing investigation into the SML deal, which was exposed by The Fourth Estate in 2023. Mr Ofori-Atta is reported to have left the country in January 2025.
In the same month of June, the OSP arrested three other former top officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority on the SML investigations. Those arrested include former Commissioner-General of the GRA, Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah; former Commissioner of Customs and now General Manager at SML, Isaac Crentsil; and former Technical Advisor to the GRA and current Managing Director of SML, Christian Tetteh Sottie.
The Fourth Estate’s work on the SML deal was an investigative piece titled “The GH₵3 billion lie & the billion-dollar contract”, which exposed irregularities and alleged misrepresentations in contracts awarded to SML.
The investigation revealed that SML was awarded contracts worth 1 billion USD to monitor revenue in Ghana’s petroleum downstream and upstream sectors, as well as the mining sector, with little transparency and questionable procurement practices.
Despite SML’s claims of saving the country over GHS 3 billion, The Fourth Estate found that there was no independent audit or verifiable data to back those figures.
Asset declaration and presidential directives
On February 18, 2025, President John Dramani Mahama directed all political appointees to declare their assets by March 31 or face dismissal. The order was grounded in Article 286 and Act 550. By April 17 2025, The Fourth Estate’s analysis revealed that at least 55 appointees had failed to comply.
We later published the full list of defaulters. Days later, the President summoned all appointees to the Jubilee House and made them forfeit three months of salaries of the defaulters. He launched a new Code of Conduct and gave defaulters a final deadline of May 7 to comply.
The result was unprecedented because for the first time since 2013, nearly all presidential appointees declared their assets within six months.
The NLA Good Causes and KGL Deal
The Fourth Estate revealed how the National Lottery Authority managed millions of cedis meant for social protection. Our investigation showed that funds intended for the vulnerable were spent on awards, galas, and elite events. It was followed by huge public outrage.
We then exposed bigger financial risks through a series of licensing agreements between the Authority and KGL that handed over the Authority’s most lucrative lottery business on highly questionable terms. KGL earned GH¢2 billion in 2023 and GH¢3 billion in 2024. During this period, the NLA paid nothing into the Consolidated Fund. Under the license, KGL was required to pay only GH¢157.6 million in 2024 as license fees and contributions to the Good Causes Foundation.
The fifteen-year exclusive license also required weekly revenue reconciliation between the Authority and KGL. These reconciliations never happened. As a result, the Authority did not know how much revenue KGL was generating from the 5/ 90 lottery.
Following our reporting, the National Communications Authority directed all telecom companies to submit transaction data related to KGL’s operations. The Authority itself wrote to KGL and regulators to begin account reconciliation that had been absent since 2019. The deal is now under review by the Office of the Attorney General and the Ministry of Justice.
Restoring dignity to a fistula survivor
In one of our human-interest stories of the year, The Fourth Estate told the story of Ruth, a thirty-four-year-old mother of four. She suffered uncontrollable urine leakage after a botched caesarean section during childbirth.
The health facility involved neglected her. For years, she lived with pain, shame, and social isolation.
After our report, the Ghana Health Service intervened. It worked with the National Fistula Committee to secure treatment for Ruth. Surgeons at Ashaiman Hospital successfully repaired her vesicovaginal fistula. Her suffering ended. Her dignity was restored. She returned to her family healed and hopeful.
The Scholarship Bonanza
Following The Fourth Estate’s exposé, The Scholarship Bonanza, which uncovered how government scholarships meant for academically gifted but financially disadvantaged students were routinely awarded to politically connected individuals and beneficiaries from affluent backgrounds, Parliament passed the Ghana Scholarships Bill.
The new law mandates gender equity in scholarship awards, requires the publication of applicants and beneficiaries, and ensures state funding for foreign programmes unavailable in Ghana, among other changes in the awarding of scholarships in Ghana.
L.I. 2462 Revoked
After The Fourth Estate revealed how officials of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and former government appointees scrambled for mining licences in Ghana’s forest reserves, the new NDC administration revoked Legislative Instrument L.I. 2462.
The revocation followed the passage of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Revocation Instrument, 2025, which matured into law on December 10, 2025, after being laid in Parliament by the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah. The repeal effectively ends presidential authorisation of mining in forest reserves.
Ada Salt Miners Reclaim Economic Survival
Following The Fourth Estate’s investigation, Death and Brutality: The Battle for West Africa’s Largest Salt Deposit, which exposed human rights abuses linked to the Songor Lagoon lease, hundreds of artisanal salt miners in Ada have reclaimed portions of the lagoon previously claimed by Electrochem Ghana Limited (EGL).
For the first time in years, more than 30 communities around the lagoon have resumed traditional salt mining. Families fractured by lost livelihoods are reuniting, as men who fled the area in search of survival have returned home.
