ORAL: Mahama’s anti-corruption committee to work for free – Ablakwa

The Chairman of the five-member Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has announced that the team will work without pay. According to him, taxpayers will bear no cost for the committee’s work, as members have resolved to forgo salaries, allowances, per diems, and fuel coupons.

Speaking in a recent media interview, Ablakwa highlighted the significance of ORAL, stressing the need to hold corrupt public officials under President Akufo-Addo’s administration accountable for their actions.

He clarified, however, that the committee’s objective is not to witch-hunt innocent public officials:

Those who are not witches have nothing to fear. They will not be hunted. If you have not planted, you have not looted.

Let’s be clear, this is a fact-finding team, an evidence-gathering team. They are only going to present the evidence to state institutions, including the Attorney General, to prosecute, to do their work, and to recover the loot for the people of this country.

The North Tongu MP further emphasised that the committee members are motivated by a sense of duty rather than personal vendettas:

What really, really matters is that these are people who have done considerable work when it comes to anti-corruption, when it comes to exposing the rot in our country. And they are people we can trust to help us recover the loot. I think that’s where the focus must be.

The five-member team was appointed by President-elect John Dramani Mahama ahead of the official commencement of his term on 7 January 2025. Tasked with gathering information from the public and other sources on suspected corruption cases, the team is preparing for the implementation of ORAL.

The ORAL committee is chaired by Hon Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP for North Tongu, and includes former Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo, retired Commissioner of Police Nathaniel Kofi Boakye, private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu, and investigative journalist Raymond Archer.

This initiative is part of Mahama’s pledge to recover looted state funds and prosecute corrupt officials, particularly from the outgoing Akufo-Addo administration.