May 27, (THEWILL) – On Tuesday, Ghana announced that its embassy in Washington, D.C., which was shut down over corruption allegations, will be re-opened on Thursday, May 29.
THEWILL reports that the embassy was temporarily shut down on Monday, May 26, after a major corruption scandal involving visa fraud and unauthorised payments was uncovered by a special audit.
According to the audit report, a locally hired IT officer at the embassy since 2017, Fred Kwarteng, created an unauthorised link on the embassy’s website. This link redirected visa and passport applicants to his private company, Ghana Travel Consultants (GTC), where they were charged unofficial fees ranging from $29.75 to $60. These payments, which were not approved under Ghana’s fees Act, were deposited directly into Kwarteng’s personal bank account.
While investigators believed the fraudulent scheme operated undetected for at least five years, the case has been referred to Ghana’s Attorney-General for possible prosecution and recovery of misused public funds.
Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who announced the temporary closure on Monday, said that the actions were necessary step to restore integrity and accountability in Ghana’s diplomatic missions abroad.
“This is part of a decisive effort to restructure and overhaul embassy operations following shocking audit findings. With the support of President Mahama, we are taking bold action to fight corruption and rebuild trust”, Ablakwa said, adding that the Auditor-General will conduct a full forensic audit to determine the total financial loss to the state.
Following the exposé, Foreign Affairs Ministry staff at the embassy were recalled to Accra, while all local staff were suspended.
However, in a statement on Tuesday, Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said a team of seasoned diplomats, led by a senior officer from the ministry, has been deployed to take charge of the mission.
Their mandate is to oversee a full system overhaul, restore integrity to the embassy’s operations, and complete ongoing structural reforms.
“It is worth noting that an Information Technology (IT) team has already been deployed to reconfigure the website and payment platforms to do away with all unofficial and unauthorised links associated with the IT system of the Embassy”, the statement said.
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