Former Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo
Former Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo has stated that he would be extremely disappointed if President John Dramani Mahama fails to take action on the report of the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) preparatory team.
Speaking to the media after the presentation of the report to the president on Monday, February 10, 2025, Domelevo said the president should ensure that proper investigations are done on the instances of corruption captured in the report in order to recover the monies stolen from the state.
The former Auditor-General, who is a member of the ORAL preparatory team, said that their work cannot go to waste, adding that he is confident that President Mahama would take action on their report.
“The president promised there would be action… I am very optimistic. Otherwise, I’ll be extremely disappointed in him and the Attorney General.
“If after we have sacrificed to do all this and they don’t subject these issues to proper investigations so that where people are found culpable, they can be held accountable, to be honest with you…,” he said.
He also pointed out that he wants the state to focus on recovering funds stolen from the state and not the imprisonment of persons found capable of stealing from the country.
He indicated that jailing people would come at a cost to the state, adding the people who have stolen from the state would come back to enjoy the money they stole after serving their prison term.
“Personally, this is my view, I think that we should move into recovering monies with some additional surcharges rather than just putting people in custody so that they can come back after five or ten years and enjoy their booty.
“So if we think that we have won the case against Mr. A and he took 10 million, we should be aiming at maybe 15 or 20 million from him. And to me, custodial sentence doesn’t help anything because the person will come back and enjoy his booty. Apart from that, we spend public funds keeping him or her in custody at the end of the day. And look at how our prisons are choked. If you want to do that, then we should go and empty the place and let the people with smaller offences go,” Domelevo said.
He also expressed his joy with President Mahama’s comments that he would put measures in place to ensure that his appointees do not steal from the state.
“The president made a point which made me extremely happy. He didn’t just talk about only ORAL. He talked about OPAL-Operation Prevent All Loot. That is the most important thing. Yes, the leakage which has happened already let’s try and find out how we can stop it. But we should prevent additional leakages. In fact, that is my worry. I was very happy when he addressed my worry,” he said.
About the ORAL Report:
The Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) preparatory team presented its report to President John Dramani Mahama on Monday, February 10, 2025.
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 for 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.
BAI/EK
You can also watch as Asiedu Nketiah allegedly drags President Mahama to FEC over appointments snub
You can also watch videos from the Minority after chaos erupted during Mintah Akandoh’s vetting
