Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has lauded President John Mahama’s efforts to recover all stolen State resources through the establishment of the defunct Operation Recover All Loots (ORAL) Committee.
“I can confirm that the principles of ORAL strongly undergird every decision I take as Minister for Foreign Affairs,” said Mr Ablakwa, who is the former Chairman of the defunct ORAL Committee, which was a cornerstone of President Mahama’s campaign and a legitimate popular demand of the Ghanaian people.
He stated this when he took his turn at the Government Accountability Series held at the Presidency in Accra.
He noted that some of the ORAL successes at the Foreign Ministry included:
The reclaiming of all the Ministry’s land at Airport Residential area, which had been sold and aborting the illegal sale of Ghana’s diplomatic property in Lagos, Nigeria, and assisting National Security to arrest the prime suspect, Bright Mensah Bonsu, who received a part payment of $1.5 million that was not paid into any government account.
He mentioned the reversing of the Ministry’s initial decision to sell Ghana’s diplomatic property in Lusaka, Zambia, stating that “I have made it clear that no sale of the Ministry’s landed properties will be tolerated.
“Pursuant to that, we have established an asset register to take proper inventory of all our assets.”
The Minister also listed the cancellation of a November 2024, $3.5 million Abidjan Embassy renovation contract, which did not follow due process.
He said they were boldly and decisively dealing with the canker of corruption at their Washington DC mission and carrying out systemic overhauls.
Mr Ablakwa said to guarantee value for money, transparency and accountability, no contract had been awarded on a single-sourced basis since he became Foreign Minister.
He stated that there were strict instructions to their procurement department to ensure that all procurement was competitive and complied with the Public Procurement Act.
The Minister also mentioned that from passport courier companies, ticketing companies, Passport Head Office annexe, cleaning contracts, staff buses – every single contract has gone through a competitive, credible process.
Competitive procurement is no longer the exception, he said.
“I am able to disclose that ORAL does not enjoy only local support; there is overwhelming international support for ORAL, which our ministry has been facilitating with other institutions of state,” he said.
“We shall continue with our international collaboration as we support President Mahama and the Attorney-General to make ORAL succeed.”
Mr Ablakwa said for instance, during President Mahama’s recent historic state visit to Singapore, an agreement was reached to support ORAL by creating a bilateral framework to build the forensic capacity of Ghana’s anti-corruption institutions including: the Economic and Organized Crime Office, the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Police Criminal Investigations Department – taking into account Singapore’s globally celebrated anti-corruption reputation.
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