Duplicate names in SA evacuation records could be people with same names – Hopeson Adorye

The Director of Operations for the United Party, Hopeson Adorye, has cautioned against assuming that duplicate names in the South Africa evacuation payment records necessarily indicate wrongdoing.

He said different people could share the same names, but repeated passport numbers would raise questions that require further investigation.

Adorye made the remarks on Accra-based JoyNews’ AM Show on Tuesday, October 27, following a JoyNews Research investigation into the GH¢49.72 million spent on evacuating 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa.

JoyNews Research has reported duplicate names in the payment records, alongside instances where payments were recorded without signatures and some evacuees reportedly did not receive their full reintegration and transport allowances.

The government has said each evacuee was entitled to a GH¢5,000 reintegration allowance and a GH¢500 transport allowance as part of the exercise.

Adorye argued that the records must be examined beyond the names to establish whether the entries represent different individuals or duplicate records of the same person.

Recounting an instance in which he sought to verify the passport details of a senior Member of Parliament, he said an initial search produced numerous people with the same name, making it necessary to use the individual’s photograph to identify the correct person.

He said the same situation could arise with names appearing more than once in the evacuation records.

“I'm not justifying, but I just want to draw our attention to some of these issues,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Ministry has requested details from JoyNews to enable it to investigate allegations that some evacuees received less than the approved allowances and that discrepancies existed in payment acknowledgement records.