PricewaterhouseCoopers audits NSS accounts

The Attorney-General’s Department has contracted international audit firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to conduct a forensic audit into the accounts of the National Service Scheme (NSS).

The audit takes effect from September 2013 to August 2014 – the period when more than GH¢80 million was paid to 30,816 non-existent national service persons.

More than 100 NSS directors in the national, regional and district offices of the scheme have been implicated in the scandal.

Explaining the rationale behind the decision, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong told the Daily Graphic in an interview in Accra that “the figures involved are huge and it is important we conduct a forensic audit to arrive at the actual embezzled figure.”

PwC began its work a week ago and it is expected to furnish the Attorney-General’s Department with the final report within a month.

Mrs Appiah-Opong declined to state the specific terms of reference to PwC, but said “the BNI is collaborating with PricewaterhouseCoopers to enable the audit firm to conduct a comprehensive audit into how the accounts of the NSS was handled during the period under review.”

Benefits 

Highlighting the need for the forensic audit, Mrs Appiah-Opong said accounting was an integral part of litigation and investigation.

She said the audit would make it possible for the damage sustained by the state in the fraud to be quantified and urged Ghanaians to appreciate her office’s resolve to protect the state’s coffers.

Backdrop

The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) made a major breakthrough in October 2014, when it unearthed a multi-million cedi fraud in the distribution of national service persons across the country.

That discovery resulted in the arrest, detention and interrogation of more than 100 officials from the NSS.

Another feat chalked up by the Bureau was the recovery GH¢30 million from the stolen funds.

The BNI late last year succeeded in striking a deal with suspects who embezzled various sums of money to refund the said amounts.

So far, 171 individuals, including the former Executive Director of the NSS, Alhaji Imoro Alhassan, have been implicated in the scandal.

He was listed among 23 individuals who paid a total of GH¢200,000 bribe to the BNI to halt the investigations.

He was alleged to have paid GH¢100,000 out of the total amount. 

The next highest amount of bribe paid to BNI officials was GH¢26,000.

According to the BNI, some of the implicated directors have entered into an agreement with the BNI and are currently refunding the money.

Materials gathered by the Daily Graphic, which first broke the scandal in October last year, indicated that the fraud was perpetuated through mandatory,  voluntary and overpayment of returns.

The breakdown showed that 29,358 ghost names were generated for the mandatory scheme, while 853 and 605 names were generated for the voluntary and overpayment returns respectively.

NSS boss charged

Alhaji Alhassan is currently standing trial at the Financial Division of the High Court presided over by Mrs Georgina Mensah-Datsa and has pleaded not guilty the charge of stealing GH¢86.9 million.

He has been granted a GH¢90 million, with three sureties, all to be justified, with property valued at more than one million Ghana cedis and is to reappear on May 27, 2015.