A day after Minister orders closure of Ghana Embassy in DC, GTC’s links still active

One day after the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa ordered the closure of the Ghana Embassy in Washington DC after he said an employee, Fred Kwarteng was found engaging in fraudulent activities, by creating and diverting a payment link from the Embassy website to the website of his private business GTC, the link is still active on the Embassy’s website.

As at the time of writing this story around 2:21pm local time May 27, 2025, when Ghana Business News logged onto the Ghana Embassy website and browsed the site, the link that sends visitors to GTC’s website where the payment is processed is still active.

According to the Minister, Kwarteng was a local staff recruited on August 11, 2017 to work in the embassy’s IT department.

“According to findings and his own admission, he created an unauthorized link on the embassy’s website which diverted visa and passport applicants to his company, Ghana Travel Consultants (GTC) where he charged extra for multiple services on the blind side of the ministry and kept the entire proceeds in his private account.

His illegal extra charges which were not approved by the ministry and parliament as required under the Fees and Charges Act ranges from $29.75 to $60 per applicant. The Investigations reveal that he and his collaborators operated this illegal scheme for at least five years,” the Minister wrote on his Facebook profile Monday May 26, 2025.

Kwarteng’s office is located at 438 N Federick Ave Suite #210, Gaithersburg. 20877, and it is about 26km to the Embassy premises. On the Embassy’s website the turnaround time for processing passports and visas is eight weeks, but on GTC’s website it says seven days.

Even though the Minister claims the deed was uncovered following an audit, some Ghanaians living in the US who have used the services of the Embassy and that of GTC, say the activities of GTC were very well known in all the five years it has been operating.

One Ghanaian in the US who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “Everyone in the Embassy knows about it. It is not new. I doubt if the Minister only got to know this recently. It has been known all along by anyone who has ever dealt with the Embassy.”

 The Minister who announced the immediate dismissal of Kwarteng and dissolution of the IT department, also recalled all the Embassy staff and ordered the Embassy shut until an ongoing restructuring and systems overhaul are finalised.

By Emmanuel K Dogbevi

The post A day after Minister orders closure of Ghana Embassy in DC, GTC’s links still active appeared first on Ghana Business News.

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