The Supreme Court of Ghana has dismissed an application to halt the ongoing High Court trial of Gifty Oware-Mensah, former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority. The application, filed by her legal team, sought to pause proceedings while the court determined the constitutionality of a practice direction mandating the disclosure of defence witnesses at the case management stage. The Supreme Court’s ruling on May 19, 2026, allows the trial to proceed.
Background to the Charges
In October 2025, Oware-Mensah was charged by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, with orchestrating a scheme that allegedly defrauded the state of over GH¢38 million. The charges include wilfully causing financial loss to the state, using public office for profit, and money laundering.
Allegations of a Ghost Name Scheme
Prosecution documents allege that Oware-Mensah manipulated the National Service Authority’s Central Management System to generate 9,934 ghost names. Subsequently, she allegedly gained control of a company, Blocks of Life Consult Limited, by appointing her mother’s driver as a director.
She then purportedly presented this company to the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB). Oware-Mensah is accused of informing the bank that she had supplied goods on hire-purchase to the non-existent service personnel. The intention, according to the prosecution, was to use these ghost employees’ allowances as collateral to secure a loan.
The alleged scheme allowed her to fraudulently obtain GH¢38,458,248.87 from ADB. This amount was reportedly secured through source deductions from the allowances of these phantom individuals over an 11-month period.
Oware-Mensah has pleaded not guilty to all five counts and has been granted bail by the High Court, presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay.
Constitutional Challenge and Practice Direction
The legal challenge that led to the Supreme Court application stemmed from a directive during a case management conference. The trial court ordered Oware-Mensah to submit a list of her defence witnesses and their addresses.
Her lawyers contended that this requirement violated Article 19(2)(c) of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, which upholds the presumption of innocence for any accused person. This constitutional provision is a cornerstone of fair trial rights.
The order was based on the Practice Direction on Disclosure and Case Management in Criminal Proceedings 2018. This directive, issued by former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo, governs court administration and case management, although practice directions are not statutory laws.
Specifically, Section 2(3)(a) of the practice direction requires an accused person to disclose the names and addresses of all intended defence witnesses at the case management stage. However, this provision includes a caveat stating it is
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