Washington Embassy audit: $800 payment was child benefit, not illicit funds – Kofi Tonto

Kofi Tonto

Political Aide to 2028 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kofi Bentil, Kofi Tonto has denied involvement in financial irregularities uncovered at Ghana’s Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Mr Tonto’s response follows a report that a forensic audit by the Auditor-General uncovered an elaborate scheme through which some embassy staff allegedly shared funds generated from unauthorised charges imposed on visa and passport applicants between 2019 and 2025.

The audit, which covered the operations of the embassy from 2017 to 2025, reportedly identified several financial schemes that generated millions of dollars outside approved charges.

According to the report, a total of $19.4 million was generated through the alleged scheme between 2019 and 2025, with the funds subsequently shared among some embassy staff as welfare packages.

The report specifically mentioned a $800 payment received by Mr Tonto in July 2021.

However, in a statement issued on Wednesday, August 12, Mr Tonto said the payment was not connected to any fraudulent activity but was a legitimate child benefit following the birth of his daughter in January 2021.

“I have never been involved in any scheme, the sharing of, or the receipt of any ill-obtained funds,” he said.

Mr Tonto, who served as Head of Information and Public Affairs at the embassy from March 2019 to July 2021, said the Auditor-General’s report did not name him as a person of interest for investigation.

He explained that the $800 payment was part of a longstanding practice at the embassy, noting that about 28 other staff members had also received similar benefits for various life-changing events.

He further argued that the payment could not be used to implicate him in the alleged $19.4 million scheme because he neither solicited the money nor determined its amount, payment account or source.

“A one-time payment of $800 for child benefit which I did not solicit for, nor determine the amount, nor determine the payment bank account and could not have known the source of funding, cannot be used as a basis to falsely implicate me as complicit in the alleged fraudulent scheme,” he stated.

Mr Tonto also denied having any role in the financial management of the embassy, particularly decisions concerning the operation or closure of bank accounts.

He said all compensations, allowances, benefits and refunds he received during his tenure were received in good faith and paid through what he described as established processes.

He has therefore urged his family, friends, supporters and the general public to disregard what he described as a distorted narrative seeking to associate him with wrongdoing in the matter.