President-Elect John Dramani Mahama has recently released a list of prominent and experienced individuals who are expected to spearhead the much-anticipated Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL). This move by the incoming President indicates that the next NDC government will indeed be tough on corruption.

There is every reason to recommend and encourage the incoming government to be successful in implementing the ORAL concept. This is due to the unprecedented level of corrupt activities and scandals we were subjected to in the past eight years under the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government.

When President Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia were sworn into office, many believed that the sunshine of hope, wealth, and prosperity was going to break through the clouds of hopelessness, poverty, hunger, and destitution. However, they flattered to deceive in an unimaginable manner with scandal upon scandal. The following scandals justify why ORAL is important and needed.

BOST Contaminated Fuel Scandal:

One of the shocking orchestrated scandals executed with the sole objective of enriching the appointees of the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia-led administrations is the Bulk Oil Storage (BOST) Limited scandal. In 2017, BOST sold five million litres of contaminated fuel to Movenpina. Astonishingly, Movenpina was incorporated barely a month after it negotiated the deal with BOST and without a National Petroleum Authority (NPA) license.

There was a brief public uproar, which led to the setting up of a nine-member committee. However, nothing substantial emerged from the committee. No one was prosecuted for this well-strategized and superbly implemented stealing scheme, irrespective of the committee's findings.

Some of the findings were that thousands of litres in the tank locked by the NPA could not be accounted for, and a total of 862,875 litres of the five million litres of contaminated fuel could not be accounted for. The committee admitted that there must have been some evaporation but found the volume loss of about 17.16% unusual.

Revealingly, the Committee found this very irregular and disturbing, concluding that clean products may have been deliberately downgraded and sold as slop or off-spec. The committee wrote: “This we believe borders on criminality and may have willfully led to a major loss to BOST and to the state in the form of petroleum taxes forgone.” It beggars belief that no one was made to answer for this outrageous theft. In today’s Ghana under President Akufo-Addo, there are no consequences for wrongdoings, SIMPLICITAS.

The PDS Scandal:

When President Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) assumed authority of the state in January 2017, Ghanaians were filled with hope and believed that a political Messiah had arrived. The new government immediately re-negotiated the Power Compact signed by President John Mahama and changed the shareholding structure to 51% Ghanaian and 49% foreign.

Ghanaians were convinced that it was a good idea to have indigenes take majority shares of the consortium and that the government would spread the ownership of the shares to all Ghanaians through a private subscription on the Ghana Stock Exchange. But in the end, people were shocked to see that it was all part of a grand scheme for certain members of the president’s family and their cronies to take over the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG) in a blatant attempt to capture state resources.

Ghanaians sat aloof while these acts of political atrocities and terrorism were unleashed on us by the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government. Some civil service organizations briefly expressed their disgust and displeasure, without consistency and perseverance. The silence of the clergy and other stakeholders was deafening.

The Cash for Seat Scandal:

There was also the cash-for-seat scandal, where monies were extorted from expatriate businesses by the Trade and Industry Ministry at an awards night. It was alleged that expatriate businesses were charged $100,000 to allow them to sit close to President Nana Akufo-Addo during the Ghana Expatriates Business Awards held in the country.

After a shambolic investigation, the Flagstaff House issued a statement saying officials at the Trade Ministry did no wrong in commercializing the Presidential Table at the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards (GEBA). In a nutshell, the president, having realized how meek and timid Ghanaians were, did things as he pleased. No one was held responsible for this because Ghanaians are not angry enough.

The National Cathedral Scandal

In another incomprehensible move, on the authority of President Akufo-Addo, government properties housed on 14 acres of prime land in Accra were pulled down to make way for the construction of a national cathedral. The buildings included residential accommodation for Court of Appeal justices.

Consequently, about 700 meters (765 yards) from Ghana’s Parliament sits one of the world’s most controversial craters, a hole surrounded by weeds into which $58 million was shamelessly and heartlessly wasted in the building of an interdenominational national cathedral.

Eight years down the line, the national cathedral still remains an abandoned project despite the injection of millions of dollars, even in the face of the economic meltdown challenges the country is going through.

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