RTI Commission fines National Service Authority over GHS 159,000

The Right to Information (RTI) Commission has imposed a fine of over GHS 159,000 on the National Service Authority for failing to release information on National Service Personnel postings to The Fourth Estate.

The penalty includes an administrative fine of GHS 50,000, along with a 10 per cent interest charge applied every 14 days until the fine is fully paid, which has accumulated to GHS 109,285.71.

The Fourth Estate wrote to the National Service Authority (NSA) on October 23, 2024, requesting information, including the number of personnel posted to each region in Ghana for 2020-2023.

The Authority refused to grant the request, so The Fourth Estate applied to the then Director-General of the Authority, Osei Assibey Antwi, to review the refusal of the information.

In response, Mr. Antwi said the Authority would release the information as soon as possible. However, in a subsequent letter dated December 13, 2024, which he signed, Mr Antwi refused to grant the request.

The Director-General claimed that The Fourth Estate had petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) on the matter. Therefore, the Authority had been advised by its lawyers to concentrate on the matter before the OSP and, therefore, could not provide the information. At the time, however, The Fourth Estate had not submitted any petition to the OSP.

Following the refusal, The Fourth Estate petitioned the RTI Commission on December 18, 2024, to review the NSA’s decision. The Commission ruled in favour of The Fourth Estate, stating that the NSA’s justification for not providing the information was not grounded in law.

Despite this directive, the National Service Authority had not complied as of March 10, 2026. In a two-page letter dated March 13, 2026, the RTI Commission wrote to the National Service Authority again to release the information and to demand that the Authority pays GHS 159, 285.71 to the Commission in accordance with sections 43 (2) ( C) and 71 (2) (f) of the Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989).

The Commission warned that  “failure to comply with this demand within seven days from the date of receipt of this letter will compel the Commission to initiate legal proceedings against the Authority to recover the outstanding penalty together with any additional accrued interest and to seek appropriate orders compelling compliance with the Commission’s decision, including the release of the requested information”.

This decision adds to a rising number of RTI Commission rulings compelling public institutions to comply with the law. In previous cases, the Commission has issued similar directives to agencies, including the Minerals Commission, the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana National Fire Service, and other state bodies.

Background

Last 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.

During the investigations, the NSA refused to release all the information that the Fourth Estate requested. However, the team was able to expose the rot, working with multiple sources.

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 GHS 2.2 billion through fraudulent entries and ghost names.

Currently, the state is prosecuting the former Director-General of the NSA, Osei Assibey Antwi, and a former Deputy Director, Gifty Oware-Mensah, for their alleged roles in the financial malfeasance.