Ghana To Reopen Embassy In America May 29 Amid Corruption And Abuse Of Office Investigation

Source: Africa Publicity

Ghana has through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration announced that its embassy in Washington D.C, America will be reopened on Thursday, May 29, 2025, amid investigation into widespread corruption and abuse of office at the embassy.

The Ministry in a statement dated Tuesday, May 27, says “following the recall of home-based staff and the suspension of local staff of the Embassy of Ghana in Washington DC, United States of America, a team of seasoned diplomats led by an astute diplomat from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has been tasked to run the Mission to ensure total systems overhaul, restore integrity in the Embassy’s operations and complete ongoing structural reforms.”

According to the statement, an information technology team has already been deployed to reconfigure the Embassy’s website and payment platforms to do away with all unofficial and unauthorized links associated with the IT system of the Embassy.

What caused the closure of the Embassy?

As earlier reported, Ghana shut down its Embassy in Washington DC, America over allegations of widespread corruption and abuse of office at the Embassy.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, had announced the temporary closure of the Embassy on Monday, May 26, 2025.

According to Ablakwa, the closure of the embassy forms part of efforts “to finalise the ongoing restructuring and systems overhaul” after a special audit team uncovered a long-running fraudulent scheme at the embassy.

Admitting that the closure of the embassy was regrettable, Ablakwa says it was necessary to restore integrity and accountability to Ghana’s diplomatic operations around the world.

According to him, “This is part of the drastic and decisive actions I have taken with the firm support of President Mahama, following the damning 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 D.C.”

Allegations

One Fred Kwarteng, a locally recruited IT staff member employed in August 2017, has admitted to creating an unauthorised link on the Ghanaian embassy’s website. The link allegedly redirected visa and passport applicants to his private firm, Ghana Travel Consultants (GTC), where they were charged unapproved fees ranging from US$29.75 to US$60.

These payments, which were not sanctioned by the Foreign Ministry or Parliament of Ghana under the Fees and Charges Act, went directly into Kwarteng’s personal account, according to the allegations. Investigations suggest the scheme had operated undetected for at least five years.

The matter has been referred to the Attorney-General for possible prosecution and the recovery of misappropriated funds.

Meanwhile, Ablakwa has also announced that all Foreign Ministry staff posted to the Washington D.C. mission have been recalled to Accra. The embassy’s IT department has been dissolved, and all locally recruited staff have been suspended pending further investigations.