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On Monday, May 26, 2025, Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, announced the temporary closure of Ghana’s Embassy in Washington, D.C. The closure followed allegations of corruption at the embassy.
At the centre of the scandal is one Fred Kwarteng, the embassy’s head of IT, who has since been dismissed. The development has been extensively covered by local and international media, such as here, here, and here.
According to Ablakwa, Mr Kwarteng created an unauthorised link on the embassy’s website.
He stated that the link redirected visa and passport applicants to his private firm, Ghana Travel Consultants (GTC), where they were charged unauthorized fees ranging from US$29.75 to US$60. This is a venture that the government had not sanctioned, and the amounts are going “directly into Kwarteng’s personal account.”
The minister also said the scheme had operated undetected for at least five years.
DUBAWA’s inquiry into the corrupt operation revealed, among other things, that contrary to the minister’s statement and the widespread media publications, the name of the private firm allegedly operated by Mr. Kwarteng is not Ghana Travel Consultants.
Through keyword predictions based on terms such as “Ghana Travel Consultants, ““visa,” “embassy,” and “search engine queries,” the name of the private organisation was found to be Ghana Travel Consultancy.
The business is listed on Google Maps as located in a commercial building complex in Maryland.
Business registration records from the State of Maryland indicate that the business was registered in 2019 with Emily Ofori listed as its contact person for engaging with legal authorities. No direct ownership link to Fred Kwarteng is established in the registry. However, this could be an effort to mask potential affiliations.
What is the nature of the services provided?
According to the company’s website, which is linked to the Google Maps page, it offers mailing support, dispatch, and parcel handling services associated with the Ghana Embassy in Washington. It also provides support for visa applications and passport documents.
As indicated in Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa’s announcement, the company listed its fees for the above as $29.75 and $60.00, respectively.
The website also lists visa fees higher than the official fees listed on the Ghana Embassy’s website.
| Ghana Embassy, Washington, D.C. | Travel Consultancy Ghana | |||
| Regular (15 days) | Expedited (7 days) | Regular (15 days) | Expedited (7 days) | |
| Multiple entry | $100 | $200 | $180 | $250 |
| Single entry | $60 | $100 | $100 | $140 |
Kwarteng’s unauthorised link on the Ghana Embassy website
After analysing the Embassy’s website with Site Liner, we discovered the presence of at least 24 external links. A manual review of each of the external websites revealed that an external link, GhanaPV.org, located under the “Passport-Visas” tab on the website, is used for Pay Return Postage services.
The website advertises Ghana as offering mailing services for the Embassy of Ghana, as well as visa application drop-off and pick-up services.
Besides using a colour scheme similar to the one used on the official embassy website, the external website uses Ghana’s Coat of Arms as its favicon, suggesting an attempt to present the website as official.
Multiple verifications between GhanaPV.org embedded on the Embassy’s official website, and Travelghana.net, the website listed for Ghana Travel Consultancy and said to be owned by Mr Kwarteng, showed that the two were directly connected.
They both mention the same address as their location. They also shared the exact phone numbers on their websites. A review of all links on the two websites showed reciprocal linking.
Additionally, an analysis of certificate transparency logs revealed that both websites shared the same SSL certificate, indicating that the same entity operates them.
Timeline of activities
According to WHOIS records, Ghanatravel.net was created in 2019, while ghanapv.org was created in 2020.
