Ghana’s Embassy in Belgium to be probed

Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Frank Annor Dompreh, has hinted that a delegation will in the coming days be sent to Ghana’s Embassy in Belgium to investigate recent allegations of corruption and financial malfeasance.

According to Mr Dompreh, this would be the only viable means of bringing closure to allegations levelled against the country’s embassy based in Brussels.

His comments come few weeks after the embassy was ordered by its bankers, the ING Bank, to close all its four accounts latest by November 12, 2020.

The embassy has four main accounts with the aforementioned bank namely; Main Euro Account, a current account; Main Euro Account, a business account; Special collections account; and Retention Fund account, which is used for internally generated funds of the embassy.

Speaking in an interaction with CitiNews, Frank Annor Dompreh said “We also heard the story, and we spoke to the Ministry [Foreign of Affairs], and they could not confirm a lot of the things being peddled around. So, I guess many of them were hearsays, so we agreed to put together a team and it is bipartisan, and they are supposed to leave for Brussels.”

Mr Dompreh added that the directive from the ING Bank was largely based on some “financial matters”

He said “…We have put together a team with that intended expertise to go to Brussels and do the needful and report back. When they return, we intend to engage the Ministry [of Foreign Affairs] on another level and put matters in perspective. That is only when we can decide what to do,” he said.

Earlier in the month, a report filed by investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni alleged financial malfeasance against the embassy.

But the claims were vehemently refuted by the Foreign Affairs Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey who insisted that the directive per her ministry’s investigations could be the result of a recent blacklist of Ghana and some other African countries by the EU.

The blacklist was on the basis of non-compliance with money laundering and terrorism financing regulations.