ORAL (OPERATION RECOVER ALL LOOT) HAS FAILED: THE NDC’S EMPTY ANTI-CORRUPTION SPECTACLE EXPOSED
Since its December 18, 2024, launch by President-Elect John Dramani Mahama with Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa as Chairman, the National Democratic Congress’ Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) has been promoted as a flagship anti-corruption drive meant to recover misappropriated state assets and bring accountability to governance.
But over one year into its existence, ORAL remains largely symbolic, a committee that identifies “potential” recoveries on paper without producing actual recoveries, prosecutions, or tangible restitution for the Ghanaian people.
At the official February 10, 2025, report handover, ORAL Chairman Hon. Ablakwa claimed the team had identified up to $21.19 billion in “potential recoveries” across 36 cases. But such figures describe potential, hypothetical, and unrealised amounts, not money actually returned to the state. There is no verified record of any funds recovered, seized, or credited back into national accounts as of January 2026. Instead, ORAL’s annual output remains largely projection-based estimations, not results.
Critics have observed that ORAL’s role is essentially to collect information and hand it over to existing state agencies like the CID, EOCO, or the Attorney General’s office, all bodies already charged with corruption investigation. Instead of strengthening capacity, ORAL has become an extra bureaucratic layer with zero prosecutorial authority, resulting in no arrests, trials, convictions, or financial restitutions traceable directly to its activities.
Hon. Ablakwa has repeatedly defended ORAL, insisting that individuals with nothing to hide should not fear its presence. Yet this rhetorical defence cannot substitute for measurable outcomes. There are simply no public disclosures of looted assets recovered, criminal cases progressed, or court actions instituted stemming from ORAL referrals in the past year.
Even some political commentators and governance experts have described ORAL’s approach as ineffective and duplicative, warning that handing evidence to other institutions without systematic follow-up undermines anti-corruption efforts.
A year after its formation, ORAL’s bold promise has evaporated into a numbers game, bereft of returns to the state, convictions, or restorative justice for Ghanaians. For all its press conferences and lofty figures, ORAL remains a committee that talks about loot but has not retrieved, repatriated, or litigated over a single cedi of it. The Ghanaian public deserves results, not rhetoric; actions, not aspirations. Until ORAL delivers real recoveries, its failure is a stark reminder that empty anti-corruption slogans cannot replace genuine accountability and systemic reform.
By: Mr Blessing Mantey
