Deputy General Secretary of the United Party, Nana Yaw Sarpong, has described the recent National Service Authority (NSA) scandal as “a well-orchestrated but unintelligent organised crime.”

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, Mr. Sarpong said the level of coordination involved in the GH¢653 million fraud suggests a deliberate and structured operation.

“This is an organised crime. This is a well-orchestrated but unintelligent organised crime. The persons who sat on the loans committee at ADB must be picked up,” he said.

Drawing on his experience as a former rural banker, Mr. Sarpong said the loan approvals granted to service personnel under the scheme defied standard credit principles.

“When you submit your loan, the procedures are clear. We look at how much you earn and we are not even supposed to give you 50% of your earnings because we take into consideration other factors such as monthly expenses and savings. The Bank of Ghana allows, give or take, between 30% and 40%. So even on the surface of it, this was wrong,” he explained.

Read also: Osei Assibey, Gifty Oware charged in GH¢653m NSA ‘Ghost names’ and fraud scandal

He questioned how national service personnel, who typically earn modest monthly allowances, could have been approved for large loans, describing it as a glaring red flag that financial institutions should have caught.

“Yes, you would have some clients who claim they have other sources of income, but these are national service personnel. What other source of income do they have?” he asked.

Mr. Sarpong’s comments follow the Attorney-General’s decision to charge two former top officials of the NSA — former Executive Director Osei Assibey Antwi and former Deputy Executive Director Gifty Oware-Mensah — for allegedly defrauding the state through ghost names and fraudulent bank loan schemes.

According to court filings, the two allegedly orchestrated separate but related operations that siphoned more than GH¢653 million in public funds, using names of fictitious service personnel and inflating payroll data to secure multi-million-cedi loans.