Miracles Aboagye questions discrepancies in South Africa evacuee payment records

Dennis Miracles Aboagye, the Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party, has raised concerns over discrepancies in the records regarding payments made to Ghanaians evacuated from South Africa. He argued that the figures do not substantiate claims that every beneficiary received the full GH¢5,500 allowance. Aboagye presented a detailed line-by-line analysis of documents provided by Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, which revealed inconsistencies between the beneficiary lists and the actual signatures on the payment records.

According to Aboagye, although the minister claimed that all 1,964 evacuees received GH¢5,500 each, the records indicated that only 1,001 individuals signed for the GH¢500 transport allowance. "The signatures do not match the headcounts," he pointed out. The minister's own signed document, which he submitted, showed only around 1,001 signatures corresponding to the GH¢500 transport allowance, while 1,508 individuals were recorded as receiving only the GH¢500 allowance.

Further scrutiny revealed that only 824 people appeared on both lists, suggesting that approximately 963 out of the 1,964 evacuees did not receive the additional GH¢500 allowance. This discrepancy has led Aboagye to question the validity of the minister's assertions about the full payment to all evacuees. His remarks came after Ablakwa challenged the Minority party in Parliament to identify any Ghanaian evacuated from South Africa who did not receive the GH¢5,500 allowance.

The minister dismissed the allegations of unaccounted funds, labeling them as attempts to create a scandal. The issue at hand revolves around the accuracy of the payment records in accounting for the allowances distributed to all 1,964 evacuees.