Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has provided Parliament a detailed report of the corruption scandal at Ghana's Embassy in Washington DC involving one Fred Kwarteng.

Mr Kwarteng is said to have created an unauthorized link on the embassy’s website that 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.

The investigations reveal that he and his collaborators operated this illegal scheme for at least 5 years.

In Parliament on Wednesday, Mr Ablakwa revealed that Mr. Fred Kwarteng was making about $4.8 million annually from his unlawful enterprise and there was no share of this amount going to the ministry.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mission adopted a fully online mailing system for visa and passport dispatch, managed by Fred Kwarteng.

Under this arrangement, applicants were offered delivery options via FedEx and USPS, for which they were charged a whopping $29.75 each. Additionally, GTC also aids applicants in completing visa and passport forms, for a fee of $60.00 to $100.00 per applicant.

According to Mr Ablakwa, 99% of all applicants utilized the services of GTC, meaning 99% of all applicants paid an extra $29.75.

"Investigations reveal that GTC dispatched between 150 to 350 visas/passports daily. Therefore, on average, about 250 visas/passports were dispatched daily by GTC," he added.

This implies that on average, yearly, GTC dispatched approximately 62,500 visas/passports.

"Fred Kwarteng has therefore been raking in an estimated $1,859,375.00 annually for courier services alone. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, you can comprehend the substantial sum he earns annually, after adding fees for assisting applicants in completing their visa and passport forms for which he charged between $60 and $100," the minister added.

The sector minister noted that admissions from Fred Kwarteng, as well as current and former staff of the Embassy, confirm that he did not act alone in this matter.

"It appears that there may have been a network of individuals involved in this web of corruption, which underscores the need for thorough investigation and accountability," he told the House.

The minister noted that the government is working with the United States authorities to freeze the accounts of Fred and other suspects.

“I underscore that Felix Kwarteng, the principal suspect in this case, along with any accomplices, will be held fully accountable under the law. This includes cooperating with US authorities to freeze the accounts linked to this criminal enterprise,” he stated.

“I issued a series of directives, which are currently being enforced. One is an internal investigative committee to probe all locally recruited staff. EOCO has formally been notified to pursue Mr. Kwarteng, trace the prints of crime, and have him brought to Ghana for prosecution,” he added.

Mr Fred Kwarteng has been fired, and his conduct has been reported to the Attorney-General, Dr Dominic Ayine, for possible prosecution and retrieval of funds obtained through fraudulent schemes.

The Auditor-General has been invited to conduct a forensic examination of all transactions and to determine the total cost of this fraudulent scheme.

A recently discovered 2023 unauthorized, opaque and illegal agreement between Fred Kwarteng and a top official at the Washington Embassy has been declared a nullity and will no longer be respected.

On May 26, the minister announced the temporary closure of the embassy due to a corruption scandal involving Mr. Fred Kwarteng, a local staff member recruited on August 11, 2017, to work in the embassy’s IT department.

To aid further probe, all Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff posted to the Washington embassy were recalled home with immediate effect. Also, the IT department was dissolved, and all locally recruited staff at the embassy have been suspended.

The ministry announced the reversal of the minister’s decision, and Ghana's Embassy in Washington DC was reopened on May 29 after a team of seasoned diplomats led by an astute diplomat was tasked to run the mission.

In 24 hours, Ghana's embassy in Washington DC issued over 800 visas after operations resumed.

The sector minister has commended the fresh team of seasoned diplomats "for the great job so far in implementing our systems overhaul and institutional fumigation."

Mr Ablakwa has also refuted claims of new recruitments to replace lost jobs in the Washington embassy, adding that "we have an adequate stock of distinguished and astute diplomats to lead ongoing reforms — this patriotic consequential reset agenda aimed at restoring the image of our diplomatic missions abroad cannot be reduced to “jobs for the boys.”"