Former Auditor-General and member of ORAL, Daniel Yao Domelevo
Former Auditor-General and a member of the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) Committee Daniel Yao Domelevo has expressed worry over the abuse of public office in Ghana, particularly instances where public officials exploit state resources for personal gains.
Speaking to the media after the ORAL Committee presented its report to President John Dramani Mahama on Monday, February 10, 2025, Daniel Domelevo stated that he was taken aback by the findings of the Committee.
“What shocked me most is the extreme abuse of public office, where you are the custodian of public funds and then you use it for yourself, or you are supposed to keep custody of government property or land, and then you allocate it to yourself or your cronies.”
He lamented the lack of consequences for such misconduct in the country.
“Let me be very honest with you. My pain as a former Auditor-General has always been that usually there are no consequences for misbehaviour in this country”, he stated.
Despite his concerns, he expressed optimism about the government’s response, describing the president’s posture as reassuring.
“The body language or the posturing of the president and his team to me is heartwarming. That if not anything at all, for the first time, we are going to see some seriousness on the ground, seriousness not because we have by ourselves decided that somebody is guilty of anything”, he stated.
He clarified that the committee has not made any direct accusations but has merely compiled information from the public.
“No, we have not accused anybody of anything. But we have provided information that we collected from the public. And if the next stage, which I find as a very critical stage, is carried out as promised by the President, then we will be saving this country good sums of money”, he noted.
Beyond recovering funds, Domelevo stressed the need to end impunity in public office.
“But to me, it is not only that—to stop or nip in the bud that culture of impunity where somebody assumes public office and he thinks that because I’m a public officer, I can appropriate public properties to my selfish benefit or to my crony’s benefit. I think that culture must stop”, he added.
On Monday, February 10, 2025, the Committee submitted its report containing 2,417 complaints of suspected corruption cases to President John Dramani Mahama.
The five-member Committee formed on December 18, 2024, has been tasked with identifying and retrieving looted state assets.
JKB/KA
In the meantime, watch the story of the Ghanaian team that rode motorbikes from Accra to Dakar and back in 17 days, below: