The Acting Director-General of the National Service Authority (NSA), Ruth Dela Seddoh, has detailed how a comprehensive audit of the authority’s enrolment and payroll system has saved the state more than GH¢68 million annually.

Addressing the media on Monday, December 15, 2025, she said the move followed the deployment of a new centralised and robust management system designed to eliminate long-standing fraudulent practices within the national service scheme.

“The National Service Authority has historically faced challenges with payroll fraud and fraudulent entries. We introduced stringent IT reforms and enhanced internal controls to combat this problem, and the old system has now been replaced," she noted.

Know all three universities fingered in NSS fraud

Ruth Seddoh explained that the new system enabled the authority to detect and block what she described as entrenched cartels attempting to infiltrate the national service payroll.

According to her, the audit process involved forensic analysis of payment records, cross-referencing registration data with official institutional databases, conducting on-site verification visits to tertiary institutions, and engaging administrators to validate graduate records.

Know all three universities fingered in NSS fraud

She said the process revealed that some institutions were complicit in submitting names of individuals who were not eligible for national service.

“We made a shocking discovery that resulted in the flagging of 8,105 individuals in the system. Out of this number, 1,840 individuals have been completely suspended, pending the conclusion of further investigations by the security agencies," Ruth Seddoh remarked.

She warned that had the anomalies gone undetected, non-qualified individuals would have been enrolled as National Service Personnel, resulting in significant financial losses.

“Had these irregularities not been detected, the state would have incurred losses of over GH¢68 million every year through the payment of monthly allowances to unqualified individuals,” she said.

The irregularities were traced to three tertiary institutions, namely the University for Development Studies, Ghana Communication Technology University, and the Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED).

She further disclosed that ten staff members from the implicated institutions have been arrested and are currently under investigation by security agencies.

She added that some staff of the National Service Authority have also been arrested and are undergoing interrogation by National Security.

Dela Seddoh noted that beyond the financial implications, the credibility and integrity of the National Service Scheme would have been severely compromised.

To prevent a recurrence, she said the authority has strengthened verification protocols, introduced automated cross-checks between institutional databases and NSA records, intensified audits of tertiary institution submissions, and implemented capacity-building programmes to improve compliance and data integrity.

“The swift and decisive action taken has protected the state from substantial financial loss and preserved the integrity of the National Service Scheme,” she added.

She also reaffirmed the authority’s commitment to transparency and accountability, stressing that efforts to sanitise the system would continue without compromise.

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