On Monday, February 10, 2024, the preparatory Committee for President John Mahama’s Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) officially presented its report to the President, with some eye-popping revelations about scale of the loot under attention.
According to the Chairman of the Committee, Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the nation stands to recoup a whopping if the persons involved in 36 out of 2,417 cases of state assets loot, are made to return what they have looted.
And this is if they are made to refund at conservative prices, without even being surcharged.
36 cases out of a total of 2,417 complaints that the ORAL team received amounts up to just 1.49% of all complaints received.
According to Hon. Ablakwa, these complaints involve jumbo corruption and looting scandals that include the abortive national Cathedral project, the PDS and SML dirty deals and the GNPC Saltpond de-commissioning project scandals.
The amount also includes a whopping US$702.8 million that can be recouped, at conservative estimates, from the recovery of looted state lands under the Akufo-Addo government.
These lands primarily comprise swathes in prime areas, such as Cantonments, Ridge and Airport that Akufo-Addo government appointees and their cronies, scrambled for cheap like confetti.
Hon. Ablakwa gave sneak peeks into the scale of the land loot involved, stating that some people paid as low as Ghc42,000 for prime Cantonments lands that if properly valued for sale to the public, it would be difficult for people with US$500,000 to get to buy.
The official handing over of the report to the President happened at the seat of government, Flagstaff House and was telecast live.
The ORAL team, comprising Hon. Ablakwa as Chairman, ace investigative journalist and current Deputy Director of EOCO, Raymond Archer; former Auditor General, Mr. Daniel Yaw Domelevo and retired Police Chief and current presidential advisor on Security, COP (Rtd) Nathan Kofi Boakye, officially handed over the report to President Mahama.
The President then in turn handed the documents over to Attorney General, Dominic Ayine, and gave him his marching orders – to immediately start investigations into the case cited in the reports.
President Mahama was very clear that he expected prosecutions where they were warranted as the AG sets about to begin the next phase of the actualization of the ORAL – investigations- which was a key manifesto promise of President Mahama while contesting for re-election in 2024.
ORAL: International Forensic Investigators Seek Collaboration To Chase Akufo-Addo Appointees Loot Stashed Away In Offshore Accounts
As the Mahama government’s Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) enters into the second phase, following the presentation of the ORAL Committee’s report to the President, it has been made abundantly clear that the appointees of the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government who have stashed away looted state funds in offshore bank accounts will be traced.
Foreign Affairs Minister, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who served as the Chairman of the ORAL committee, informed President Mahama, during an official presentation of the report that there are forensic auditors and investigators abroad who are willing to collaborate in order to trace and recover the looted money in offshore accounts.
According to Hon. Ablakwa, these potential collaborators have proposed to do the forensics at no c ost to the government, and that some have proposed an arrangement where they can be paid a percentage of loot that they successfully recover.
Details of these proposals, he said, are in the reports that the ORAL Committee has gathered.
What this means is that, those who have stashed stolen money in foreign bank accounts, especially in tax havens, like criminal bosses, will be pursued.
Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa however emphasized that the decision as to whether these collaborations will be explored lies with the president.
According to the ORAL team, the committee received a total of received 2,417 complaints over the 53 days that the committee worked. Forty four (44) of the complaints came directly from civil society organizations
The Committee said it has reviewed 230 of the cases with 59 of them contained in the documents that were handed to the president.
Ablakwa Catalogues 10 early dividends from ORAL
Just from the process of receiving complaints alone, the committee charged with gathering evidence as part of the Mahama government’s Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) has made some very significant interceptions.
According to Chairman of the Committee there are ten (10) significantly impactful outcomes that resulted from the phase 1 of ORAL – which was the evidence gathering process, even before phase 2 – investigations – kicks in.
These include the fact that the ORAL has deepened transparency and accountability by increasing public awareness about the need to protect state assets. ORAL, he said, has also served as a guide to appointees of the Mahama government themselves that corruprion will not be tolerated.
Thanks to ORAL, he said, 50 state bungalows that were on the verge of being demolished have been saved. In respect of these, Hon. Ablakwa said the team received distress calls from public servants who said people had showed up to demolish their bungalows. Some of these bungalows belong to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Gender, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
What the ORAL team did, according to Hon. Ablakwa, was to immediately relay distress calls that they received to the National Security Ministry which then promptly stepped in and disallowed the de,olitions. COP (Rtd) Nathan Kofi Boakye, one of the members of the Committee also worked with National Security and served as the liaison between ORAL and National Security, Hon. Ablakwa said.
At the presentation of the report, the other members of ORAL, private legal practitioner, MARTIN Kpebu, former Auditor General, DANIEL Yaw Domelevo and ace Investigative journalist, Raymond Archer, were all in attendance at the report submission ceremony at the Flagstaff House on Monday.
According to Hon. Ablakwa, the ORAL team also collaborated with National Security to save lands belonging to the Northern Development Authority at Cantonments, that a private developer, moved in overnight on the eve of president Mahama’s investiture, to erect a wall that divided the property into two halves.
Also collaboarated with National Security to stop state asset takeovers across the country. In the report there are videos and photos of vehicles whose number plates were being changed . acting on tip off Nationalsecurity stepped.
The ORAL team also prevented a private Foundation form taking over a land belonging to the WEB Dubois center. This particular issue, he said, has been delegated to the Minister of Tourism to settle.
The ORAL team, he said, has also saved large portions of the Agric mechanization lands at Cantonments opposite. The lands which are opposite the El-Wak sports stadium had been allocated to a private developer. However, upon the establishment of ORAL, the Association of vegetable producers and exporters reached out to the committee for help to save the land since that is where they operate.
According to Hon Ablakwa, large portions of the Association’s facilities had been demolished while their cold room was on the verge of being demolished at that point.
Again, National Security was called in and as aresult of the timely intervention, some 80% of the lands have been saved.
Meanwhile, the 20% that has been grabbed, Hon. Ablakwa confirms that the perpetrators are politically exposed persons, including Ministers in the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government and MPs too.
For some of these lands, located in prime areas such as Cantonments, even persons with US$500,000 will struggle to get these lands to buy but the Akufo-Addo government appointees who grabbed these lands bought them for as cheap as Ghc42,000.
The ORAL Committee, according to Hon. Ablakwa, also collaborated with National Security to halt the attempted demolition of staff quarters belonging to the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board at Osu, Kuku Hill. The property had already been sold to a private developer, however, the ORAL team managed to prevent the demolition.
Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa also counted as an achievement, the fact that the committee offered offered opportunity for citizens to use non confrontational means to stop the loot of state assets.
Meanwhile, some persons who benefited from the spoils of corruption under Akufo-Addo have offered to return the loot peacefully, Hon. SAMUEL Ablakwa revealed.
The last one is that the ORAL committee has attracted local and international request for forensic collaboration to recover the loot hidden offshore. Some of these potential collaborators have said they are willing to help without charging any money and only accept percentages of what they successfully recover.
