The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Minority in Parliament has flagged what it described as a massive unreconciled gap in the evacuation of 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa following xenophobic attacks in that country.
It accused the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of failing to adequately account for a significant portion of the GH¢49.72 million reportedly spent on evacuating Ghanaians from South Africa, alleging that discrepancies in payment registers and flight records leave more than GH¢16.4 million unaccounted for and requiring further explanation.
The Deputy Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament and MP for Bosome-Freho, Mr. Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, disclosed these when he presented the Minority’s findings after examining documents supplied by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa in response to a Right to Information (RTI) request.
According to the Minority, Mr. Ablakwa, in response to the RTI request filed under Act 989, stated that a total of GH¢49,721,786.00 was spent on the entire exercise, comprising GH¢33,721,786.00 government-funded costs and GH¢16,000,000.00 attributed to Engineers & Planners for air tickets and reintegration support.
The Minister said each evacuee received GH¢5,000.00 reintegration grant and GH¢500.00 transport allowance.
Mr. Asafo-Adjei Ayeh said the Minority took weeks to meticulously peruse hundreds of pages of handwritten and scanned payment registers and flight records attached to the Minister’s response, and engaged independent third parties to corroborate its findings.
Only 824 received both packages
The Minority said its name-by-name matching of the two payment registers shows that only 824 persons can be confirmed to have received both the GH¢5,000 and GH¢500 packages, against the Minister’s claim that all 1,964 received both.
That leaves 1,140 evacuees unaccounted for, translating to GH¢6,270,000.00 in reintegration and transport support.
791 evacuees missing on flight records
On flight costs, the Minister said GH¢9,420,463.68 was spent on commercial flight tickets and layovers.
Per his own earlier records, 926 were evacuated via chartered flights, implying the remaining 1,038 came via commercial flights, an average of GH¢9,076.00 per person.
However, the Minority noted that only 247 persons can be evidenced as having been evacuated via commercial flight on the annexed records.
Adding the 926 chartered evacuations, only 1,173 persons are accounted for, not 1,964.
This leaves 791 persons unaccounted for, representing GH¢7,179,116.00 in flight costs.
Combining the flight and reintegration gaps amounted to GH¢13,449,116.00, 27% of the total evacuation budget.
The Minority cited three other serious anomalies
According to the Minority, 1,708 persons signed for the GH¢5,000 package, while only 1,001 signed for the GH¢500 package, a difference of 707.
Minors
The GH¢5,000 register contains 442 minors.
But the Minister’s response was silent on whether they were paid the same GHS¢5,000 and GH¢500 as adults, whether sums were paid to parents/guardians, and what safeguarding arrangements existed.
This alone involves GH¢2,431,000.00.
Duplicated names
The registers, the Minority noted, show extensive duplications with the GH¢5,000 register, having 42 duplicated entries.
Again, the GH¢500 register had 12 duplicated entries across.
Flight manifest
The Minority observed that the flight manifests had 29 duplicated entries.
It noted that valued at their respective rates, the duplications expose a further GH¢543,354.00 at risk of double payment or double counting.
According to the Minority, minors and duplications also add GH¢2,974,354.00.
Revised exposure: GH¢16.4m (33%)
Adding the GH¢2.97m to the GHS13.44m gives a revised total exposure of GH¢16,423,470.00, 33% of the entire GH¢49.7m, which the Minority maintained, the Minister must account for.
The Minority said two explanations are possible, either the Foreign Minister failed to place the full details before Parliament, or the number of evacuees and expenditure have been overstated.
Demand for independent audit
The Minority is demanding a full independent audit by an internationally recognised firm, Deloitte Ghana, KPMG Ghana, PwC Ghana, or EY Ghana, demonstrably independent of the Ministry and its contractors, with terms of reference and findings made public.
While welcoming the Minister’s invitation to the Auditor-General, the Minority said only a thorough, independent and transparent audit can restore public confidence.
“I call on the Minister to urgently and fully account for the GH¢16.3 million that remains unexplained on his own records,” Mr. Asafo-Adjei Ayeh said.
The allegations, however, do not establish that money was stolen or that the number of evacuees was deliberately inflated. Those questions require verification of the underlying records and a response from the Ministry.
