Ghana’s Embassy in Washington, D.C. has been temporarily closed following the discovery of a long-running unauthorized payment scheme involving visa and passport services.
A recent audit uncovered that Fred Kwarteng, a locally recruited IT staff member of the Embassy, had created an unofficial payment portal through which visa and passport applicants were redirected to his private company, Ghana Travel Consultants (GTC).
Once they get to his portal, applicants were charged unauthorized fees ranging from $29.75 to $60 for services that should have been processed solely through official embassy channels.
The scheme is reported to have operated for at least five years, with none of the funds accounted for by the embassy.
Indeed, Techfocus24 gathered that between 2020 and 2021, under the previous government, an official of the embassy carried out some investigations into the suspected fraudulent schemes by Fred Kwarteng and presented their findings to the Heads of Chancery and of Consular, but nothing was done about it until now that there is a change of government.
Fred Kwarteng has since been dismissed, and the matter has been referred to the Attorney-General for possible prosecution and recovery of funds.
In response to the audit findings, the following actions have been taken to restore accountability:
-
All Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff stationed at the Washington, D.C. embassy have been recalled to Ghana.
-
The embassy’s entire IT department has been dissolved.
-
All locally hired staff have been suspended, pending further review.
-
The Auditor-General has been called in to conduct a forensic examination of all financial and administrative records.
-
The embassy will remain closed for a few days while a restructuring and systems overhaul takes place.
Authorities have expressed regret for any inconvenience caused to Ghanaians and other clients who may be affected during the temporary closure. Officials say these steps are necessary to ensure transparency, rebuild trust, and prevent future abuse.
