2,417 Complaints, 36 ‘Top’ Cases, $20.49b ‘Savings’: Ablakwa shares details on ORAL findings

Speaking at the presentation of the report at the Office of the President, the Chairman of the committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, disclosed that the team received 2,417 complaints from the public on instances of corruption.

He said that 36 of the 2,417 complaints the team thoroughly investigated pointed to serious embezzlement of state funds.

The chairman of the committee, who is also the Member of Parliament of North Tongu, added that the government can retrieve as much as $20 billion of stolen monies from the 36 cases.

“Thirty-six (36) cases that we have reviewed in detail, if we are successful in recoveries, we can retrieve as much as $20.49 billion – 20.49 billion United States dollars! Thirty-six cases!

“And that is from the National Cathedral, PDS, SML, you have the GNPC Salt Point decommissioning… We decided that in this open session, we will not go into greater detail. And so, I want to be restrained,” he said.

He added, “But there’s a great deal of resources belonging to the taxpayers that can be retrieved.”

Ablakwa, who is also the Minister of Foreign Affairs, disclosed that the country can recover over $700 million from state lands that have been captured by politicians.

He said that looking at the 36 cases and the supposed land looting alone, the country could raise over $21 billion, which is far more than the $3 billion the country received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme.

“Then we’ve also done an estimate of the state-captured lands. If we successfully ask people to pay the conservative market value for the lands they have looted, the experts are telling us that we can recover about $702.8 million for the Ghanaian people.

“That’s if we just ask people, those who were paying GH₵42,000, GH₵120,000, GH₵160,000 (for prime state lands), to pay the fair market value of lands worth $500,000, $600,000. You will even struggle to get Cantonments land at that figure, so very conservative estimates,” he said.

He added, “We take the view that if people are asked to pay the real market value, this is how much we can retrieve. So, in all, just a summary, the 36 cases, the high-value cases that we put together, and then the land loot, potentially we can raise about $21.19 billion.”

About the ORAL team:

President John Dramani Mahama, on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, appointed a five-man team to start work on his anti-corruption initiative, Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL).

This initiative aims to recover all of the country’s resources that have been looted by public officials.

The anti-corruption team will be chaired by Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu.

The members of the team include former Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo, retired Commissioner of Police (COP) Nathaniel Kofi Boakye, renowned private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu, and investigative journalist Raymond Archer.

A statement issued by the spokesperson of Mahama’s Transition Team, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, indicated that the main function of the team is to gather information on suspected acts of corruption.

It added that the essence of the preparatory team is to ensure that ORAL starts as soon as possible.