FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BudgIT Ghana and Revenue Mobilisation Africa (RMA), two leading organisations championing fiscal transparency, tax justice, and public accountability across Ghana, express grave concern over the latest findings from the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) investigations. These findings, publicly presented by the Office of the Attorney General & Ministry of Justice and submitted in conjunction with the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), expose alarming patterns of systemic abuse of public resources across the National Service Scheme (NSS) and the National Food and Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) that demand urgent, coordinated reform.
According to the Attorney General’s briefing, the NSS scheme alone listed over 81,000 ghost names between 2018 and 2024 and unlawfully siphoned more than GH¢548 million in public funds. Former senior officials at NSS face multiple charges including money laundering, causing financial loss, and using public office for private gain.
Simultaneously, the NAFCO investigation uncovered the unlawful diversion of over GH¢78.2 million in funds earmarked for national food programmes and buffer-stock maintenance; the Attorney General’s office confirmed that senior administrators and external collaborators orchestrated the mis-allocation of government funds intended for school feeding and food security.
Country Manager for BudgIT Ghana, Jennifer A. Moffatt, following the Attorney General’s briefing , indicated,“These cases don’t represent isolated errors. They expose institutional vulnerabilities in our budget-execution systems and demonstrate that access to data alone is insufficient when citizens cannot trace how funds move, who is accountable, or whether any action follows.”
Similarly, Geoffrey Kabutey Ocansey, Executive Director of Revenue Mobilisation Africa, added,“These revelations should not only shock us; they should compel structural action. It is time to fix the loopholes that make revenue leakages possible and prioritise reforms that safeguard the public purse, protect taxpayer funds, and restore citizens’ trust in fiscal governance.”
In response, BudgIT Ghana and Revenue Mobilisation Africa call for the following urgent actions:
- Immediate publication of the full ORAL dossier, including names of implicated individuals, asset recovery timelines, and institutional reforms underway.
- Creation of public-facing, real-time dashboards for the NSS, NAFCO and other high-risk agencies, enabling citizens to track allocations, execution progress and audit outcomes.
- Empowerment and support of citizen-monitoring platforms such as Tracka that allow grassroots data to feed directly into oversight mechanisms and ensure that funds flow only where visible impact exists.
- Prosecution updates and asset-return disclosures issued regularly to show that looted funds are being recovered and reinvested into public services.
- Revised institutional safeguards as mandated by the Public Financial Management Act (Act 921) and public procurement regimes, with strengthened internal audits, external oversight and public-feedback loops at the centre of reform.
BudgIT Ghana and Revenue Mobilisation Africa reaffirm their joint commitment to working with government institutions, civil society, and citizens to strengthen fiscal responsibility, enhance transparency, and build a governance culture that protects every cedi collected and spent in the name of the people.
Signed
Nancy Adzo Akpene Avevor
Communications Officer, BudgIT Ghana
Geoffrey Kabutey Ocansey
Executive Director, Revenue Mobilisation Africa