A forensic audit by the Auditor General conducted into Ghana’s Embassy in Washington dealings has implicated Ghana’s former US ambassador Alima Mahama, who has been caught up in a $19.3 million extortion from visa and passport applicants.
It will be recalled that on Monday, May 26, 2025, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, closed down Ghana’s Embassy in Washington, DC after allegations of corruption.
Some embassy staff were alleged to have diverted funds from visa and passport application processes to a privately owned company secretly established.
The report implicated senior officials at the embassy, including Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States, Hajia Alima Mahama; Joseph Ngminebayihi, who served as Minister (Consular) from 2017 to 2021; and his successor, Amidu Mohammed Karande, who served from 2021 to 2025.
According to the audit report, Alima Mahama approved a contract formalising the outsourcing of dispatch services to entities linked to the system.
“Her Excellency Alima Mahama served as Ambassador and Head of Mission from 2021 to 2024. As Ambassador and Head of Mission, H.E. Alima Mahama exercised ultimate supervisory and financial authority over the Embassy’s operations. She signed the General Contract for Services between the Embassy and Travel Ghana / Secure Data Centre, thereby formalising the outsourcing of passport and visa dispatch functions to a related party, with unauthorised fees charged to applicants. During her tenure, the Mission faced scrutiny over banking compliance, exposure to related-party transactions, and weaknesses in governance controls,” the report said.
The report published by the Public Accountability and Integrity Commission (PAIC), the structure of the website used for consular services, visa issuance and passport processing was altered through website manipulation.
It indicated that applicants who accessed the embassy’s official website were redirected to privately controlled platforms, where they were required to pay $29.75 per application for the return of their passports or visas.
Details showed that the expected or actual cost of postage averaged $10.10, indicating that each applicant paid nearly $20 above the cost of the service.
“These arrangements enabled the collection of dispatch/mailing fees and application support service charges from applicants,” part of the forensic audit report stated.
The audit report detailed that the largest component of the $19.3 million in alleged illicit fees charged came from mailing and dispatch charges.
“The forensic analysis of visa and passport processing activities at the Embassy of Ghana in Washington, D.C., identified irregular financial transactions related to dispatch/mailing charges between 2019 and 2025; application support services between 2021 and 2025; extra merchant fees for online payments between 2020 and 2025; as well as transactions involving Fred Kwarteng & STEFRANN LLC between 2019 and 2020,” the report said.
“In addition to mailing charges, applicants were required to pay application support service fees through the unapproved external platforms to which they were redirected. These fees were set at $67 for passport applications and $76.78 for visa applications. The audit indicates that these services were presented as necessary for completing applications, even though they were not part of officially approved government charges,” part of the report read.
An Information Technology Officer at the embassy identified Fred Kwarteng has been fingered in the audit report as the alleged mastermind behind the scheme which created and operated external platforms, including TravelGhana.Net and GhanaPV.org.
The audit report indicated that websites created by Kwarteng “redirected applicants from the Embassy’s website to pay fees for postage and application support services. Applicants were charged $29.75 for return postage and additional support service fees through the platform,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, Alima Mahama, in 2025 when the allegation surfaced, denied any wrongdoing in connection with claims raised by Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa over operations at Ghana’s Embassy in Washington, DC.
She disputed the figures cited by Okudzeto Ablakwa regarding the operations of Ghana Travel Consultants (GTC), a private company operated by former embassy staffer Fred Kwarteng.
Alima Mahama argued that the company had a valid contract with the embassy and rejected claims that the arrangement had resulted in financial loss to the state.
However, the Auditor General recommended that these monies be retrieved from the officials involved and sanctioned accordingly.
“We recommend recovery of the amount from the Key Actors. Again, the affected officers should be sanctioned in accordance with the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038),” the audit report added.
See the summary of the estimated cost of irregularities below:
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