By Elsie Appiah-Osei, GNA
Accra, Oct. 11, GNA- The New Patriotic Party 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 New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (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 responded 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), estimates about GHS7.18 million in flight costs 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 alleged 442 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 references GHS16,302,586 in the Caucus call, a difference of GHS120,884 from the figure.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei
11 October 2026
Reporter: Elsie Appiah-Osei, GNA
Email: [email protected]