Fourth Estate's allegations 'contemptuous, misleading' - National Service Authority

Immediate past National Service Authority (NSA) heads, Mustapha Ussif and Osei Asibey Antwi, have refuted allegations of wrongdoing leveled against them by The Fourth Estate.

The Fourth Estate accused the National Service Authority of padding up service personnel and giving monthly allowances for rendering no service.

It alleged that the number of personnel the National Service Authority submitted for payment was more than the list the authority submitted to Parliament.

In a joint statement, the two immediate past top directors vehemently denied The Fourth Estate's investigative report.

In its statement, the authority explained, "It must be noted that, in addition to the general enrolment cycle by the Authority, the NSA, in partnership with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, runs an enrolment cycle for nurses.

"The same is done for teachers in partnership with the Teachers Council. The shortfalls in the figures are therefore accounted for from these other enrolment cycles.

"The claim by the Fourth Estate is therefore without any basis, which fact would have been apparent to them had they exercised any diligence in their purported investigations."

After explaining the National Service posting system, they further slammed The Fourth Estate for hastily publishing what they believe is a misleading verdict without thorough cross-checking from GhIPSS on how much was paid after the authority's own system flagged undeserved names.

"It is shocking that, considering the standing of The Fourth Estate as a media outlet, they would rely on these entry data without ascertaining from GhIPSS (the paying entity) the actual number of personnel paid per year and whether any of these persons with such inconsistent information actually received allowances from the NSA," the statement said.

"This betrays the malicious intent of the purported investigation by The Fourth Estate, as merely calculated to hurriedly publish a sensational story to smear former officers, rather than diligently establish the facts as expected of a decent media house."

The two emphasized their commitment to transparency by highlighting the robust systems they built to curb fraud at the authority.

"Throughout our tenure, we committed to implementing robust enrolment and verification mechanisms to reduce the occurrences of unscrupulous attempts to circumvent the system.

"One of such important systems was the development of a common portal and the generation of unique access codes to institutions for the submission of their enrolment data in order to reduce the likelihood of manipulation at the entry point."

"The publication by The Fourth Estate must therefore be treated with the contempt it deserves, as it is a manifest example of how the misapprehension of data and institutional processes may result in conclusions that misinform and mislead the general public."

While urging the media to stay true to their creed and be thorough in their work to avoid publishing "sensational stories that malign individuals without basis," they also welcomed President Mahama's call for investigations.

"We welcome the directive by President Mahama for an investigation, as we are certain the investigation will reveal that the true state of affairs on the matters published are contrary to the contrived allegations by The Fourth Estate."

You can also watch Godfred Dame's full speech on legal case withdrawals below: