Forensic audit reveals how Ghana’s Embassy in the U.S. extorted $19.3m from visa and passport applicants
For six years, thousands of visa and passport applicants who turned to Ghana’s Embassy in Washington believed they were following standard government processes and paying the right fees. They filled out forms online, paid the service fees and paid extra money to have their documents mailed back to them. In many cases, that was where […]
For six years, Ghana's Embassy in the United States improperly charged thousands of visa and passport applicants nearly $19.4 million, while many did not receive their travel documents. The issue came to light after an audit by Ghana's Auditor-General, which revealed that the Embassy had been redirecting applicants to private platforms and imposing extra fees beyond standard postage costs.
The audit found that the embassy's operations deviated from official government systems, such as the Electronic Consular Information Management System (eCIMS) and AppTrack, which are supposed to handle applications and fees transparently. Instead, the embassy redirected applicants to websites operated by an IT officer named Fred Kwarteng and several affiliated companies.
Applicants were charged $29.75 per application to receive their documents back, even though the actual postage cost averaged just $10.10. This resulted in an overpayment of nearly $20 per application. The audit also uncovered additional irregularities, such as unapproved payment processing through the Square payment platform and extra merchant fees.
These practices led to a total loss of $19.37 million, despite the embassy already collecting fees from applicants. The backlog of undelivered applications created additional administrative burdens and delays for those affected.
Written by urgent.news from MyJoyOnline Ghana's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
