The discrepancy emerged during testimony to Parliament’s Medical Supply Performance Inquiry on 14 October, as officials examined a government contract for drone delivery of blood products, vaccines and essential medicines. The inquiry’s published flight records show 54,218 of 197,430 logged deliveries between January 2024 and June 2026 had no matching clinic receipt or named recipient.
The Health Logistics Office paid KetaWing Health Services GH₵186 million (about €12.8 million) under the four-year programme, according to figures presented to the inquiry. The amount covers aircraft availability and delivery services; officials have not said how much, if any, was paid for the entries without confirmation.
How a flight became a delivery
The Plausible Post compared the inquiry’s dispatch register with the receiving records supplied by 63 clinics in five regions. The largest gaps appeared in the Northern and Upper East regions, where 31,700 logged deliveries had no corresponding receipt in the sampled clinic records. Some clinics said paperwork was occasionally completed later or kept on paper.
Maite J. Arevalo, a former route analyst who helped prepare the inquiry’s technical evidence, said the system changed a shipment’s status to “delivered” as soon as its drone left the launch point. “If a drone crossed the fence, it was labelled delivered, even if the box came back,” she told the panel. The software did not require a clinic worker’s signature to close the entry.
If a drone crossed the fence, it was labelled delivered, even if the box came back.
Maite J. Arevalo, former route analyst
The register also contained 8,406 repeated package identifiers, inquiry members were told. Arevalo said some duplicates came from dispatch attempts that were cancelled and re-entered, while others appeared to be data-entry mistakes. The inquiry has not determined whether any duplicate entry led to an incorrect payment.
Clinics describe missing proof
At clinics interviewed by the newspaper, staff described receiving some deliveries without a digital receipt and recording others in handwritten books. A nurse in Tamale said the gap made it difficult to reconcile monthly stock totals, but she could not say that a specific shipment listed in the register had failed to arrive. The inquiry has asked 12 facilities to submit original receiving books by 20 November.
Aitana Barrios, director of the Health Logistics Office, said the service had kept clinics supplied in areas where road journeys can take hours. She told the panel that the office had paused approval of delivery totals based only on dispatch data and would require clinic confirmation for new claims. “We need to separate a completed flight from a completed delivery,” she said.
KetaWing said in testimony that its aircraft carried medical cargo on 92% of scheduled sorties and that some missing confirmations reflected weak connectivity or paper-based clinic procedures. It agreed to provide a revised reconciliation of the disputed entries by 18 November. The company has not admitted that the unconfirmed deliveries were counted improperly.
The inquiry is due to hear from district health managers next month and publish recommendations in January. Until then, the Health Logistics Office says it will continue the drone service but will publish monthly figures separating flights, packages received and entries awaiting confirmation. The distinction could affect how Ghana measures access to urgent supplies in remote communities.
