Ghana's Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has launched an investigation into alleged corruption in the issuing of Ghanaian diplomatic and service passports, after claims that people who did not qualify for the documents obtained them through payments to officials.

The anti-corruption agency announced the probe in a statement on Monday, 9 November 2026, saying it was investigating allegations of corruption and related offences linked to the suspected arrangement.

The investigation follows preliminary findings by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which uncovered 10 service passports allegedly issued irregularly between January 2023 and August 2026. The ministry also received two petitions alleging payments of US$29,000 and US$5,000 in connection with the suspected irregularities.

Ten passports cancelled, two officers interdicted

The ministry said all 10 passports had been cancelled and were no longer valid for travel, and that efforts were under way to identify and trace the beneficiaries, including those who may have travelled internationally using the documents.

Two serving officers have been interdicted and referred to the Ghana Police Service for further investigation and possible prosecution. The ministry identified them as the Acting Director of Passports, Mahama Yahaya Amantana, and a junior Foreign Service officer, Alhassan Sumani, who was named in all the petitions as the alleged mastermind of the scheme. The conduct of a former Director of Passports is also expected to come under scrutiny.

The OSP said it would establish the roles of the people involved, trace the alleged payments and scrutinise the approval and issuing procedures to determine whether criminal offences occurred. It said further updates would be provided where appropriate and without compromising the investigation.

What is alleged, and what is disputed

The probe comes amid broader allegations by the Minority in Parliament that officials of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Passport Office facilitated the sale of diplomatic and service passports to unqualified applicants. The Minority has alleged that about 300 Ghanaians travelled abroad using documents obtained through the suspected arrangement.

Those claims have not been established. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has clarified that its preliminary findings relate specifically to service passports, adding that no evidence has so far been established to suggest that diplomatic passports were being sold.

The dispute has also spilled into Parliament. Cletus Seidu Dapilah, vice chair of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, has accused the Minority of presenting forged documents as evidence, saying the signatures on them differed from those of the officials they were attributed to. He backed the formation of a bipartisan parliamentary committee to investigate the controversy, while questioning the need for another inquiry when an investigation was already under way.

The opposition New Patriotic Party has welcomed the OSP investigation but called for a public inquiry instead, with its communications director, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, also calling on Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa to step aside while the matter is examined.

Scale of passport issuing

Figures released by the ministry show the scale of passport issuing in Ghana. A total of 1,397 service passports were issued between 2009 and 2016, compared with 3,174 between 2017 and 2024, while 754 had been issued from 2025 to November 2026. For diplomatic passports, the figures were 2,899, 5,682 and 1,944 over the same three periods.

The ministry has pointed to reforms including chip-embedded passports, application centres in all 16 regions, 24-hour operations and electronic tracking. For now, the OSP investigation is the formal process that will decide whether the alleged payments and irregular issues amount to criminal offences, and who, if anyone, should face prosecution.