Kissi Agyebeng, Special Prosecutor
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has waded into the controversies surrounding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs evacuation of 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa to Ghana.
The OSP says it has also commenced investigations into allegations of corruption and irregularities in the issuance of Ghanaian diplomatic and service passports.
The Office, in an update on its website, says it is investigating the allegations into some alleged corruption in GH¢49.72 million spent on evacuating 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa, citing discrepancies in records and payments.
This presents a new dynamic to the whole issue with the possibility of the OSP initiating criminal action against any person found to have engaged in corrupt or corruption-related activity.
Pressure is mounting on Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and his staff to provide accurate documents regarding the evacuation exercise.
The documents presented to the Minority and a subsequent one presented to JoyNews portray different accounts of the evacuation exercise, leaving many questions unanswered.
The Minority has in the past weeks called on President Mahama to sack the minister, with a further call on Mr. Ablakwa to resign while a thorough investigation is conducted into the allegations.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor says it is examining alleged discrepancies between reported expenditure and payment records, including duplicate entries, inadequate supporting documents and payments recorded against beneficiaries who say they did not receive them.
“The examination seeks to establish whether the funds were properly accounted for and disbursed, who received the payments and whether any public officer or private individual improperly benefited,” the OSP said.
It says the investigation concerns the management of public funds, not the government’s humanitarian decision to evacuate its citizens.
“Further information will be disclosed where appropriate. All persons concerned are presumed innocent unless proven guilty,” the OSP added.
Diplomatic Passport Probe
Meanwhile, the OSP says it has also commenced investigations into allegations of corruption and irregularities in the issuance of Ghanaian diplomatic and service passports.
The allegations concern a suspected scheme in which persons who did not qualify for diplomatic and service passports allegedly obtained them in exchange for payments to individuals within the passport administration system.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported that its preliminary investigations identified ten service passports allegedly issued irregularly between January 2023 and August 2026. It also received two petitions alleging payments of US$29,000 and US$5,000 in connection with the scheme.
Two serving officers have been interdicted and referred to the Ghana Police Service for investigation and possible prosecution. The ministry has also indicated that the conduct of a former Director of Passports during the relevant period will be examined.
The ten passports have reportedly been cancelled, and efforts are being made to trace the beneficiaries, including those alleged to have used the documents for international travel.
The OSP says its investigation will establish the roles of those involved, trace the alleged payments, examine the approval and issuance processes and determine whether any corruption or corruption-related offences were committed.
Minority’s Demands
Government’s expenditure of GH¢49.72 million to evacuate the stranded Ghanaians and their reintegration came under serious scrutiny after the Minority in Parliament detected some inconsistencies in the data released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following a Right to Information (RTI) request.
The Minority Caucus in Parliament, led by Deputy Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, has consistently questioned aspects of the expenditure, pointing out that they do not tally with the ministry’s own information provided to the Minority.
Mr. Ayeh has demanded an independent public audit to establish how the funds were used, to establish among others, whether all the beneficiaries received the reintegration fund of GH¢5,000 and another GH¢500 as transportation.
The Minority, at a press conference on October 11, 2026, alleged that the discrepancies in the passenger records, flight manifest and the reintegration payments raised questions about more than GH¢16.4 million in expenditure instead of the GH¢49.72 million indicated by the ministry.
One of the issues raised by the Minority concern what they describe as incomplete records and inconsistencies in the number of evacuees captured in the ministry’s documents made available to them.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak