Okudzeto pressured agent to change, issue new invoices - NPP alleges

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has demanded that the Foreign Affairs Ministry explain whether it asked the agent who arranged charter flights for the South Africa evacuation to issue fresh invoices months after the flights took place.

Speaking at a press conference, NPP National Communications Director Dennis Miracles Aboagye said the party had been informed that the first three charter flights were operated by Ethiopian Airlines and arranged through one Vanderpuye. He asked Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa to confirm whether the Ministry’s Chief Director asked Vanderpuye last month to issue new invoices for those flights.

“If so, why did invoices for flights flown months earlier need to be reissued now?” he asked. He also called on the Minister to explain why the Ministry had fallen out with the man who arranged the flights.

The questions come amid NPP concerns over the cost of the charters. The Ministry’s documents put each flight at US$750,000, while the NPP says industry checks place the cost of a comparable charter at between US$180,000 and US$300,000. The party has alleged that each of the three flights may have been billed well above its actual cost.

The NPP says GH¢27,183,700, or 55 percent of the GH¢49,721,786 spent on evacuating 1,964 Ghanaians, went on charter flights, yet the Ministry has released no invoice, no contract and no name of the operator.

“Publish the original Ethiopian Airlines invoices for all three flights,” Aboagye said. “If the figures are honest, the original invoices will settle this in a day. If they are not produced, Ghanaians will draw their own conclusions.”

The party also wants the Ministry to disclose how the charter operator was selected under the Public Procurement Act and to submit the evacuation accounts to an independent audit. It has given the Minister seven days to lay all records before Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

Ablakwa has maintained that all records are available and that no money is missing.

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