The Auditor-General says Ghana’s Honorary Consul-General in Houston, USA failed to declare the full visa fees collected from applicants between 2018 and 2019.
In its 2021 report, the Auditor-General said the Consul-General was found to have collected $100 for each standard visa application but only accounted for $60 to the state.
Therefore, the amount he declared and paid to the government chest was $60 for each $100 that he received.
He also charged $200 for each express visa processing but accounted for $100.
“Between September 2018 and September 2019, the Honorary Consul-General at the Houston Consulate levied each Visa applicant a US$100.00 and a US$200.00 for ‘Express Service’ for which he accounted for US$60.00 and US$100.00 respectively,” the audit report revealed.
“In total, he accounted for US$458,900.00 out of US$843,900.00 leaving a difference of US$354,760.00 unaccounted for,” the report further noted.
He, thus, recommended that the Head of Chancery at Ghana’s mission in Washington immediately recovers the difference of 354,760.00 from the Honorary Consul-General.
“We recommended that the Head of Chancery should immediately recover the difference of US$354,760.00 from the Honorary Consul-General.”