The Majority Caucus of Parliament’s Select Committee on Foreign Affairs has dismissed allegations that funds used for the evacuation of 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa remain unaccounted for, insisting that comprehensive documentation has been submitted to Parliament for scrutiny.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, Chairman of the Committee and Member of Parliament for Ablekuma South, Alfred Oko Vanderpuye, described the allegations raised by the Minority Caucus as “baseless and politically contrived”.

The Minority had raised concerns over the use of public funds for the evacuation in a statement and press conference held on October 11, 2026.

However, Hon. Vanderpuye says the Foreign Affairs Committee received a comprehensive report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 18, 2026, detailing the evacuation exercise and providing records of all 1,964 Ghanaians who were brought back from South Africa.

According to him, the report contained the names, dates of birth, passport numbers, professions, contact information, amounts received and signatures of the evacuees. 

He added that the necessary attestations from parents or legal guardians were included for minors.

“We therefore have the names of all the 1,964 evacuated Ghanaians. Not a single name is missing or unaccounted for,” he stated.

The Majority Caucus further disclosed that the Ministry submitted financial records covering chartered flights, commercial airline tickets, transportation, feeding, accommodation and other logistical arrangements made by Ghana’s High Commission in South Africa.

The documentation, Hon. Vanderpuye said, also included evidence of a GH¢16 million donation from Engineers and Planners, owned by businessman Ibrahim Mahama, alongside relevant correspondence and letters of appreciation.

Defending the overall expenditure, the caucus maintained that the total cost of GH¢49,721,786 represented a true and accurate reflection of the resources used for the evacuation, describing the expenditure as prudent.

“Knowing the track record of the NPP, they most likely would have spent ten times this amount,” the statement added.

Hon. Vanderpuye also commended President John Dramani Mahama and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, for what he described as their decisive leadership and prompt intervention in securing the safe evacuation of the Ghanaian nationals.

He said that in more than a decade of service on the Foreign Affairs Committee, he could not recall another evacuation exercise with documentation as extensive as that submitted for the recent operation.

“This level of transparency has never occurred after any of the evacuations carried out by the NPP in their eight years in power,” he said.

The Ablekuma South MP further disclosed that the Foreign Affairs Minister had, on his own initiative, sought to brief the committee following the evacuation but members of the Minority Caucus did not participate in the engagement.

The Majority argued that raising public allegations after declining the opportunity for parliamentary scrutiny raised questions about the Minority’s intentions, describing the move as a  “political mischief”.

On the payment of allowances to the evacuees, the caucus said no Ghanaian brought back from South Africa had come forward to complain about not receiving the GH¢5,500 integration and transportation allowance.

Meanwhile, Hon. Vanderpuye confirmed that the committee had received a copy of a letter referenced CC/1, dated September 17, 2026 and addressed to the Auditor-General, inviting an independent and comprehensive audit of evacuation exercises undertaken from 2017 onwards.

The proposed audit is expected to cover the 2020 COVID-19 evacuation, the 2022 evacuation from Ukraine, the 2023 evacuation from Sudan and the 2026 evacuation from South Africa as well as any other exercise the Auditor-General considers relevant.

The Majority Caucus said the move demonstrated the Ministry’s commitment to transparency, stressing that accountability should be comprehensive, impartial and consistently applied across successive administrations rather than selectively invoked for partisan purposes.

In further questioning the value for money associated with previous evacuation exercises, Hon. Vanderpuye cited GH¢44,460,530 spent on quarantine arrangements alone during the 2020 COVID-19 evacuation under the previous New Patriotic Party administration.

The caucus said the expenditure raised legitimate questions about value for money and maintained that scrutiny of evacuation costs should extend across administrations.

The statement concluded by defending the government’s handling of the South Africa evacuation and insisting that the financial and administrative records submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee provided a basis for examining the exercise.