By Elsie Appiah-Osei, GNA
Accra, Oct. 13, GNA – The Majority Caucus of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Foreign Affairs has dismissed allegations that funds expended on the evacuation of 1,964 Ghanaian nationals from South Africa remain unaccounted for.
According to the group, every cedi spent is supported by documentation.
Addressing a press conference in Parliament on Monday, Dr Alfred Oko Vanderpuije,
Chairman of the Committee said, “The committee has received and scrutinised a comprehensive report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the exercise.”
The press conference was in response to an earlier press conference held by the Minority Caucus on Sunday, October 11, 2026, alleging that substantial sums of public funds used for the evacuation were unaccounted for.
Dr Vanderpuije commended President John Dramani Mahama and Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, for what he described as decisive leadership and prompt intervention in securing the safe evacuation, an undertaking he said has attracted international recognition.
The Chairman said on September 18, 2026, the Committee received a meticulous report from the Ministry accompanied by an exhaustive roll of all 1,964 evacuees.
According to him, the roll contained names, dates of birth, passport numbers, professions, contact information, amounts received and duly appended signatures, with particulars of minors attested to by 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 Vanderpuijie, also the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Ablekuma South, said the Ministry also furnished the Committee with extensive financial documentation, including receipts for chartered flights, commercial airline tickets, transportation, feeding, accommodation and other logistics undertaken by Ghana’s High Commission in South Africa.
The submission, he added, also contained documentary evidence of the GHS16 million donation by Mr Ibrahim Mahama’s Engineers and Planners, including donation correspondence and letters of appreciation.
Drawing on over a decade of service on the Committee, Dr. Vanderpuije said he could not recall any previous evacuation exercise with such extensive documentation 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 declared that the total cost of GHS49,721,786 represents a true and accurate reflection of the exercise, describing it as a prudent expenditure.
He noted that so far, not a single evacuee had come forward to claim he or she did not receive the GHS5,500 integration and transportation allowance.
Dr. Vanderpuije said the Foreign Affairs Minister had on his own volition sought to brief the Committee after the evacuation, an engagement the “Minority side boycotted, only to resort to public allegations.”
“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.
He disclosed that as Chairman, he had received a copy of a letter referenced CC/1 dated September 17, 2026, addressed to the Auditor-General, inviting an independent and comprehensive audit of evacuation exercises undertaken from 2017 onwards.
The audit, he said, will cover the COVID-19 evacuation of 2020, the Ukraine evacuation of 2022, the Sudan evacuation of 2023, the South Africa evacuation of 2026, and 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 argued that if accountability was to be historical, the GHS44,460,530 expended on quarantine arrangements alone during the 2020 COVID-19 evacuation under the previous administration raises questions about value for money when travellers were asked to pay for quarantine.
He urged the Foreign Minister to remain focused despite what he described as attempts to assassinate his character.
On Sunday, October 11, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Minority Caucus on Sunday called for an independent audit of the GH¢49.72 million reportedly spent on evacuating Ghanaians from South Africa.
The Caucus alleged there were gaps between official figures and supporting documentation provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The call was made by Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, the Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament House, Accra, during a press conference with a section of the media.
It was dubbed:” The Unreconciled Cost of the South Africa Evacuation”.
Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, also the NPP MP for Bosome-Freho, said his call was after reviewing documents released by Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Minister for Foreign Affairs in response to a Right to Information (RTI) request.
The government undertook an evacuation exercise between May 27 and September 4, 2026, following xenophobic attacks in South Africa. According to the Ministry, 1,964 Ghanaians were evacuated, with the final batch of 41 arriving on September 4.
On September 7, the 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 amount was said to cover chartered flights, commercial tickets, feeding, accommodation, medical care, ground transport and other logistics, including a GHS5,000 reintegration grant and GHS500 transport allowance per evacuee.
Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh had filed an RTI request for itemised expenditure, payment registers, flight manifests and procurement records. According to him, the Ministry provided a response exceeding 200 pages.
Presenting its analysis of those documents, the Minority alleged “reintegration and transport allowances on comparing the registers for the GHS5,000 reintegration grant and the GHS500 transport allowance could match only 824 names across both lists, against the official figure of 1,964 evacuees.”
The Caucus calculated the difference as 1,140 people, representing about GHS6.27 million at GHS5,500 per person, which the MP said required further documentation.
On commercial flight records, the Minority said 926 evacuees were recorded on chartered flights, leaving an estimated 1,038 to have travelled commercially.
The Deputy Ranking Member said, “The review of the commercial flight documents provided identified 247 passengers.
He added to the 926 charter passengers, that totals 1,173, leaving an alleged difference of 791 against the official 1,964 figure.
“Using an average cost of GHS9,076 per commercial passenger (based on the minister’s stated commercial ticket cost of GHS9,420,463.68 divided by 1,038), it estimates about GHS7.18 million in flight costs, which requires further explanation.
“Combined, the two items amount to GHS13.44 million, about 27 per cent of the total announced expenditure, according to the Minority’s calculation,” he said.
“The Minority also cited duplicate entries in the registers—including 36 names on page 56 and six names on page nine of the reintegration register, and repetitions in the transport register and a flight manifest—as well as blank and unsigned entries,” he added.
Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh further raised questions about payments relating to minors, saying its manual count identified 442 alleged minors in the reintegration register, representing GHS2.43 million at the full GHS5,500 package, and sought clarification on how payments for children were handled.
Incorporating those issues, the Minority put its total figure requiring further reconciliation at GHS16,423,470, or about 33 per cent of the total expenditure.
He also referenced GHS16,302,586 in the Caucus call, a difference of GHS120,884 from the figure.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Odeng Adade
Reporter: Elsie Appiah-Osei, GNA
[email protected]