ECOWAS not chasing our officers for ‘missing $800,000’ – Ghana Armed Forces

The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has refuted news publications alleging that some of its officers are being chased by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for stealing $800,000 which was to be used as allowances for peacekeeping troops.

According to GAF, the said $800,000 was paid to the required troops who served with the ECOWAS Mission in The Gambia (ECOMIG), and there are no outstanding payments.

In a statement issued on November 11, the army said that the only issue with the mission in The Gambia was that the troops did not sign the ECOWAS reimbursement forms for their peacekeeping allowances, which some of them were brought to Accra to do.

“The Ghana Armed Forces wishes to categorically state that there are no outstanding issues in respect of ECOMIG troops peacekeeping allowances. Since the insertion of the Mission in 2017, the troops individually signed for their peacekeeping allowances at the contingent level. They were not mandated to sign the ECOWAS re-imbursement forms for their peacekeeping allowances as this was the responsibility of the Commanding and Finance Officers of the various contingents.

“However, auditors from ECOWAS recently recommended that the troops should also sign the reimbursement forms. Accordingly, personnel concerned who had completed their tours of duty and in Ghana, were recalled from their Units across the country to Accra to sign the forms. This has been done as requested by ECOWAS except for those personnel not immediately available and are yet to do so.

“It is therefore untrue that some Ghanaian Officers are unable to account for some peacekeeping allowances and are being chased by ECOWAS. The publication must be disregarded,” parts of the statement read.