The former Head of Accounts at the National Service Authority (NSA), Eric Nyarko, on Thursday told the court hearing the case against former Deputy Executive Director Gifty Oware-Aboagye that he neither generated nor approved data used under the ADB-NSA hire purchase scheme.

Testifying as the third prosecution witness in the case, Mr Nyarko said the data originated from the Authority’s IT consultant, Samuel Korley, and was transmitted under the instructions of the accused person.

“I only received processed data, what I mean is that the data had been generated already right from the accused person who had the approval authority, and she is the person who has overall access for proper verification,” he told the court.

Mr Nyarko was being cross-examined by counsel for the accused after confirming that he signed the master agreement between the NSA and the Agricultural Development Bank as a witness in his capacity as Head of Accounts.

Asked about the Authority’s obligations under the agreement, he said the NSA was expected to deduct loan repayments from the allowances of National Service Personnel who benefited from the hire purchase arrangement.

He explained that during a meeting in January 2023, Ms Oware-Aboagye informed him that she had secured a loan agreement with ADB to supply items to service personnel on hire purchase.

According to him, he advised that the bank should instead use the Authority’s existing marketplace platform, where private vendors had already been onboarded to offer goods on hire purchase.

However, he said the accused person indicated that the arrangement with ADB was a special agreement and that she would secure the loan using a list of service personnel who had opted for the items.

Mr Nyarko testified that Samuel Korley, whom he described as the NSA IT consultant responsible for the Central Management System, later sent him a list of interested personnel.

“What I can remember is that the impact technology belongs to Samuel Korley, and he’s the one who manages everything concerning national service personnel, right from the generation of PINs to the deployment of NSPs, and also manages the marketplace system of the NSA,” he said.

He confirmed that on January 20, 2023, Mr Korley emailed him a list containing 6,623 National Service Personnel said to be interested in the ADB hire purchase programme.

Out of that number, he said he forwarded 5,890 names to Ms Oware-Aboagye.

“That is correct, per the instructions of the accused person,” he stated.

Pressed on whether he verified the identities of the service personnel, Mr Nyarko maintained that his role was limited.

“For me, as an accountant, I verify the data by their National Service IDs, and then also because of the structure of the CMS, it was designed that the accountant will always receive soft copies of data,” he said.

He added that Ms Oware-Aboagye had assured him that the system itself produced credible data and performed its own gatekeeping functions.

Mr Nyarko also told the court that some instructions from the accused person were sent via WhatsApp messages, insisting that electronic communication had become a practical means of handling large datasets.

He further disclosed that the list later returned to him by Ms Oware-Aboagye had been modified to include products, prices, monthly instalments and repayment periods for each named individual.

Towards the end of his testimony, Mr Nyarko explained why he had begun referring to some of the listed beneficiaries as “supposed NSPs.”

He said he was invited by the National Intelligence Bureau and informed that some names captured in standing orders he prepared were “ghost names or non-existent NSPs that were paid.”

“That is the reason I’m referring to them now as supposed NSPs,” he said.