The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudeto Ablakwa, has sacked a staff member of the Ghana Embassy in Washington DC, following what he describes as damning findings unearthed after an investigation was carried out at the embassy.
Fred Kwarteng who was engaged in August 2017 to work at the Embassy’s IT department, according to Mr. Ablakwa, created an “unauthorised link” on the Embassy’s website to divert prospective passport applicants to his personal company, enabling him to charge them an extra fee.
According to a post made by the Minister on his Facebook page Monday, May 26, 2025, he said Mr. Kwarteng had to be relieved of his duty following his own admission of committing the crime.
“According to findings and his own admission, he created an unauthorized link on the embassy’s website which diverted visa and passport applicants to his company, Ghana Travel Consultants (GTC), where he charged extra for multiple services on the blind side of the ministry and kept the entire proceeds in his private account,” he stated.
The Minister further indicated that the Attorney-General has been informed of the development to ensure prosecution and retrieval of the sum made by Kwarteng over the past five years at the expense of the Embassy.
Also, “all Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff posted to the Washington embassy have been recalled home with immediate effect.” All locally recruited staff have been suspended with the IT department of the Embassy also dissolved.
Find below Mr. Ablakwa’s full post:
With the firm support of President Mahama, I have carried out the following drastic and decisive actions following the damming findings of a special audit team I put together a couple of months ago to investigate alleged corrupt practices at Ghana’s embassy in Washington DC:
1) The immediate dismissal of Mr. Fred Kwarteng.
Mr. Kwarteng was a local staff recruited on August 11, 2017 to work in the embassy’s IT department. According to findings and his own admission, he created an unauthorized link on the embassy’s website which diverted visa and passport applicants to his company, Ghana Travel Consultants (GTC) where he charged extra for multiple services on the blind side of the ministry and kept the entire proceeds in his private account. His illegal extra charges which were not approved by the ministry and parliament as required under the Fees and Charges Act ranges from US$29.75 to US$60 per applicant. The Investigations reveal that he and his collaborators operated this illegal scheme for at least 5 years.
This conduct has been reported to the Attorney-General for possible prosecution and retrieval of funds obtained through fraudulent schemes.
2) All Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff posted to the Washington embassy have been recalled home with immediate effect.
3) The embassy’s IT department has been promptly dissolved.
4) All locally recruited staff at the embassy have been suspended.
5) The Auditor-General has been invited to conduct forensic examination of all transactions and to determine the total cost of this elaborate fraudulent scheme.
6) Ghana’s embassy in Washington DC shall be closed for a few days from today as we finalize the ongoing restructuring and systems overhaul.
Any inconvenience these radical measures may cause visa and passport applicants is regretted.
President Mahama’s government will continue to demonstrate zero tolerance for corruption, naked conflict of interest and blatant abuse of office.
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