Minority claims baseless, GHS49.7m South Africa evacuation fully accounted for – Majority Caucus

The Majority Caucus on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has rejected allegations that funds spent on evacuating 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa remain unaccounted for, insisting that the GH¢49.72 million expenditure is supported by comprehensive documentation.

The caucus maintained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had provided records covering the evacuees, payments and logistical arrangements associated with the operation.

Addressing a press conference in Parliament on Monday, October 12, 2026, the Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, said members had received and scrutinised a detailed report from the ministry.

“The committee has received and scrutinised a comprehensive report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the exercise.”

The press conference followed an earlier briefing by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Minority Caucus on Sunday, October 11, during which it called for an independent audit of the evacuation expenditure, citing alleged discrepancies in the supporting documents.

Dr. Vanderpuije commended President John Dramani Mahama and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, for what he described as decisive leadership and prompt intervention in securing the safe return of the Ghanaian nationals.

He said the committee received a detailed report from the ministry on September 18, 2026, accompanied by a register containing information on all 1,964 evacuees.

According to him, the register included their names, dates of birth, passport numbers, professions, contact details, amounts received and signatures. The particulars of minors were also supported by attestations from their parents or guardians.

“We therefore have the names of all the 1,964 evacuated Ghanaians. Not a single name is missing or unaccounted for,” he stated.

Dr. Vanderpuije, who is also the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Ablekuma South, said the ministry submitted extensive financial records, including receipts for chartered flights, commercial airline tickets, transportation, feeding, accommodation and other logistical arrangements undertaken by Ghana’s High Commission in South Africa.

He added that the documents included evidence of the GH¢16 million contribution from Ibrahim Mahama’s Engineers and Planners, alongside correspondence relating to the donation and letters of appreciation.

Drawing on his more than a decade of service on the committee, Dr. Vanderpuije said he could not recall another evacuation exercise for which such extensive documentation had been submitted for parliamentary scrutiny.

“This level of transparency has never occurred after any of the evacuations carried out by the NPP in their 8 years in power,” he said.

The Majority Caucus maintained that the total expenditure of GH¢49,721,786 accurately reflected the cost of the exercise and described the spending as prudent.

Dr. Vanderpuije further said the committee had not received any complaint from an evacuee alleging that they had not received the GH¢5,500 integration and transportation allowance.

He also disclosed that Mr. Ablakwa had voluntarily sought to brief the committee after the operation, but members of the Minority Caucus boycotted the engagement.

He criticised the Minority for subsequently raising public allegations despite declining the opportunity for direct parliamentary scrutiny.

“Their subsequent resort to public allegations, having declined the opportunity for direct parliamentary scrutiny, raises legitimate questions about the sincerity of their professed commitment to accountability,” he said.

Majority backs independent audit

Despite defending the expenditure, Dr. Vanderpuije said an independent audit of evacuation exercises undertaken since 2017 would help establish the facts and strengthen accountability.

He disclosed that he had received a copy of a letter referenced CC/1, dated September 17, 2026, and addressed to the Auditor-General, requesting a comprehensive and independent audit of the exercises.

The proposed audit is expected to cover the COVID-19 evacuation in 2020, the evacuation from Ukraine in 2022, the Sudan operation in 2023 and the recent evacuation from South Africa in 2026, as well as any other relevant exercise.

“The Majority Caucus maintains that accountability must be comprehensive, impartial and consistently applied across successive administrations, rather than selectively invoked for partisan expediency,” he stated.

He also questioned expenditure of GH¢44,460,530 on quarantine arrangements during the 2020 COVID-19 evacuation under the previous administration, raising concerns about value for money, particularly when travellers were required to pay for quarantine.

Dr. Vanderpuije urged the Foreign Affairs Minister to remain focused on his responsibilities despite what he described as attempts to assassinate his character.

Minority alleges GH¢16.42m requires reconciliation

The Minority Caucus, led in its public presentation by the Deputy Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, had called for an independent audit of the GH¢49.72 million spent on the evacuation.

At a press conference at Parliament House in Accra on Sunday, October 11, the NPP MP for Bosome-Freho presented what the caucus described as “The Unreconciled Cost of the South Africa Evacuation”.

He said the concerns emerged from a review of documents released by Mr. Ablakwa in response to a Right to Information (RTI) request he had filed for itemised expenditure, payment registers, flight manifests and procurement records.

According to Mr. Ayeh, the ministry provided a response exceeding 200 pages, but the caucus identified alleged gaps between the official figures and the supporting documentation.

The government conducted the evacuation between May 27 and September 4, 2026, following xenophobic attacks in South Africa. The ministry said 1,964 Ghanaians were evacuated, with the final batch of 41 arriving on September 4.

On September 7, the Foreign Affairs Minister announced that “the exercise cost GHS49,721,786, comprising GHS33,721,786 in direct government funding and GHS16 million in support from Engineers & Planners.”

The expenditure was said to cover chartered flights, commercial tickets, feeding, accommodation, medical care, ground transportation and other logistical arrangements. It also included a GH¢5,000 reintegration grant and a GH¢500 transport allowance for each evacuee.

Dispute over allowances and flight records

One of the Minority’s principal concerns centred on the registers for the reintegration grant and transport allowance.

According to Mr. Ayeh, a comparison of the two registers identified only 824 matching names, against the official total of 1,964 evacuees.

The caucus calculated the difference at 1,140 people, representing approximately GH¢6.27 million at GH¢5,500 per person, and called for additional documentation to explain the discrepancy.

The Minority also questioned the commercial flight records, arguing that the documents it reviewed did not account for all the passengers said to have travelled through that arrangement.

It said 926 evacuees were recorded on chartered flights, leaving an estimated 1,038 expected to have travelled commercially.

However, Mr. Ayeh said the commercial flight documents provided identified 247 passengers. When added to the 926 charter passengers, the figure reached 1,173, leaving an alleged discrepancy of 791 against the official total of 1,964 evacuees.

Using an average cost of GH¢9,076 per commercial passenger, calculated from the minister’s stated commercial ticket expenditure of GH¢9,420,463.68 divided by the estimated 1,038 commercial passengers, the Minority put the associated flight costs at approximately GH¢7.18 million.

The caucus argued that the figure required further explanation.

Mr. Ayeh said the alleged discrepancies relating to the allowances and flight records amounted to GH¢13.44 million, representing about 27 per cent of the total announced expenditure.

The Minority also cited alleged duplicate entries in the registers, including 36 names on page 56 and six names on page nine of the reintegration register. It further claimed that there were repetitions in the transport register and a flight manifest, alongside blank and unsigned entries.

Questions raised over payments for minors

The Minority also questioned how allowances were handled for children evacuated from South Africa.

Mr. Ayeh said the caucus’s manual count identified 442 alleged minors in the reintegration register, representing GH¢2.43 million at the full GH¢5,500 package per person.

He called for clarification on the arrangements governing payments for minors.

Taking the various issues together, the Minority estimated that GH¢16,423,470 in expenditure required further reconciliation, equivalent to approximately 33 per cent of the total announced cost.

The caucus also referenced a figure of GH¢16,302,586 in its call for further scrutiny, leaving a difference of GH¢120,884 between the two amounts.

While the Majority Caucus has defended the ministry’s documentation and endorsed an independent audit, the Minority maintains that the alleged discrepancies warrant further examination.

The proposed audit is expected to cover the South Africa evacuation alongside earlier exercises, allowing expenditure under successive administrations to be examined.