Kwasi Yirenkyi Criticizes Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) for Ineffective Approach to Corruption

Governance expert Kwasi Yirenkyi has criticized the formation of Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL), calling its role of merely collecting corruption-related information and passing it on to state bodies a “complete waste of time.”

Yirenkyi’s remarks came in response to a clarification by President-elect John Mahama, who stated that the ORAL team would not be conducting investigations but instead serve as a focal point to collect evidence of corruption for submission to the relevant state institutions. Mahama emphasized that ORAL would not investigate individuals but would gather evidence to be passed on to agencies like the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), the Criminal Investigative Department (CID), and the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB).

However, Yirenkyi disagreed with this approach, arguing that it undermines the efficiency of existing state institutions. He suggested that specialized units within agencies such as EOCO, CID, and NIB should be tasked with handling corruption-related investigations directly. “I am quite surprised that the team’s work is just to receive the information and pass them on to the bodies. This is a waste of our time,” Yirenkyi said. He emphasized that such work should already be within the mandate of the state bodies and their existing units.

“Fighting corruption is good, but we can only win when we follow due process,” he added. “We have had enough of misgovernance over the past years, and we want new ways of doing things.” He believes that the incoming administration should focus on strengthening the capacity of the institutions already in place to handle corruption cases, rather than creating an additional layer of bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, ORAL leader Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa announced that the team had received the full dossier on the National Service ghost names scandal. In a post on his X page on December 20, he thanked The Fourth Estate and the Media Foundation for West Africa for their support in providing the critical information. “Together, we shall reset Ghana and recover all loot,” he wrote.

The National Service ghost names scandal involves fraudulent inclusion of names on the National Service roster, leading to the siphoning of government funds. This issue is one of several corruption-related cases that ORAL aims to address through its efforts.