The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has announced reforms and disciplinary measures following what he describes as “damning findings” from a special audit team that investigated alleged corrupt practices at Ghana’s embassy in Washington DC.
In a Facebook post on Monday, May 26, 2025, Mr. Ablakwa revealed that with the firm backing of President John Mahama, his ministry has taken “drastic and decisive actions” in response to a wide-ranging fraudulent scheme uncovered at the embassy, including the immediate dismissal of Mr. Fred Kwarteng, an IT staff member accused of orchestrating the scam.
According to the audit report and Kwarteng’s own admission, he created an unauthorized link on the embassy’s official website that rerouted visa and passport applicants to a private entity, Ghana Travel Consultants (GTC).
Through this scheme, Kwarteng allegedly charged applicants extra fees ranging from $29.75 to $60 for services that were neither approved by the Ministry nor by Parliament, as mandated by Ghana’s Fees and Charges Act.
The illegal operation is believed to have run for at least five years, during which all proceeds were funneled into Kwarteng’s personal account. The matter has since been referred to the Attorney-General for possible prosecution and retrieval of stolen funds.
In addition to the dismissal, the Minister outlined a series of urgent corrective measures:
1. All Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff currently posted to the Washington embassy have been recalled to Accra.
2. The embassy’s IT department has been dissolved.
3. All locally recruited staff have been suspended.
4.The Auditor-General has been called in to conduct a forensic audit to determine the total financial loss and assess the extent of the fraudulent scheme.
5. Ghana’s embassy in Washington DC shall be closed for a few days from today as the ministry finalizes the ongoing restructuring and system overhaul
Mr. Ablakwa expressed regret over any inconvenience the temporary closure may cause to visa and passport applicants but emphasized that these radical actions are necessary to restore integrity and accountability.
The minister also hinted that further updates will be shared as investigations and reforms progress.
