Former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Mensah, who is on trial for allegedly causing financial loss of more than GH¢38 million to the state, has filed a motion seeking to stay proceedings in the case.
When the matter was called before the High Court on Wednesday, February 18, her counsel, Gary Nimako Marfo, informed the trial judge of the application, which prays the court to halt further proceedings pending the determination of an appeal before the Court of Appeal.
The appeal challenges an earlier directive by the trial High Court ordering the accused to file a list of her defence witnesses together with their addresses.
Oware-Mensah’s legal team contends that the order is inconsistent with Article 19(2)(c) of the 1992 Constitution, which guarantees the presumption of innocence until a person charged with a criminal offence is proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.
The trial court has adjourned the case to March 9, 2026, to enable the prosecution to file its affidavit in opposition to the motion for stay of proceedings.
In October 2025, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine, preferred five charges against Oware-Mensah, including wilfully causing financial loss to the state, using public office for profit, and money laundering.
The prosecution alleges that between 2022 and 2023, Oware-Mensah fraudulently generated 9,934 ghost names on the NSA’s Central Management System. She is accused of subsequently taking control of Blocks of Life Consult Limited by appointing her mother’s driver as one of the company’s directors.
The state further claims that she presented the company to the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and represented that she had supplied goods on hire-purchase to the 9,934 fictitious personnel, intending to use their purported allowances as collateral to secure a credit facility.
According to the prosecution, the scheme enabled her to fraudulently obtain GH¢38,458,248.87 from the bank through source deductions from the allowances of the non-existent names over an 11-month period.
Oware-Mensah has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and was admitted to bail by the High Court presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay.