Nana Agyei, a Communications team member of the opposition New Patriotic Party(NPP), has waded into the South Africa(SA) evacuation scandal and called for accountability over allegations of financial irregularities in the expenditure associated with the evacuation of Ghanaians, questioning the handling of the funds by Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.
Mr Agyei said investigations by the Minority Caucus and JoyNews raised concerns about the use of GH¢49 million reportedly allocated for the evacuation exercise.
“They said they used 49 million Ghana cedis for the evacuation. After investigation by the Minority Caucus, and also JoyNews, they found out that out of the 49 million Ghana cedis, they could not account for GH¢16 million,” he claimed on Kumasi-based Angel Fm
Agyei further alleged that documents presented for review contained irregularities, including instances where some names appeared twice with different signatures.
He also questioned the reported differences in the amounts given to evacuees, claiming that some received GH¢5,000 while others received GH¢2,000.
The NPP communicator argued that the allegations warranted serious scrutiny, adding that similar circumstances in some countries could have led to Okudzeto Ablakwa’s dismissal.
Agyei firmly criticised Ablakwa, whom he described as the person who spearheaded the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) initiative. He questioned the contrast between the initiative’s stated accountability objectives and the allegations surrounding the evacuation expenditure which his ministry handled.
