A forensic audit by Ghana’s Auditor-General has uncovered about $19.37 million in irregular charges paid by visa and passport applicants at Ghana’s Embassy in Washington, D.C., between 2019 and 2025.
The audit found that applicants were redirected from the Embassy’s official website to privately controlled platforms, where they paid additional fees for passport and visa dispatch, application support and online payment processing. Some of the platforms reportedly used official symbols and similar designs that could make them appear to be government-authorised.
One major finding involved a $29.75 passport and visa return fee, although the audit estimated the average actual postage cost at about $10.10. After analysing more than 170,000 visa mailing transactions and other dispatches, the audit calculated excess mailing charges of about $4.59 million.
Applicants were also charged separate fees of $67 for passport applications and $76.78 for visa applications for support services that were not part of officially approved government charges. The audit further identified additional payment-processing fees and said total transactions linked to the irregular activities amounted to more than $21.3 million.
The report also uncovered a backlog of 12,721 visa and passport applications between June and August 2025. Only 4,507 were mailed during the period, while 8,214 were either collected personally or remained undelivered, despite applicants having paid mailing fees. The Embassy subsequently spent about $45,000 to clear part of the backlog.
The Auditor-General linked several external platforms and entities to the arrangement and identified an Embassy IT officer as having created and operated some of them. The report said weak internal controls and inadequate oversight enabled the irregularities.
The audit recommended recovery of the irregular funds and sanctions against officers found responsible under Ghana’s Cybersecurity Act. The findings come after the Embassy was temporarily closed in 2025 amid concerns over delays, missing documents, unclear fees and other operational irregularities.
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