Daniel Domelevo, a member of the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) team, has admitted that the $21 billion expected to be recovered under ORAL was exaggerated.
The former Auditor-General agree with comments by the Deputy Attorney General that the estimated $21 billion was exaggerated.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on October 22, Mr Domelevo stated, “I completely agree. I remember I had an interview with you earlier, and I said that those figures are just a summation of the complaints which came. And I even said that after an audit or investigation, those figures may balloon further or may shrink. It is possible.”
He explained, “The actual game is in the courtroom. When you get to the courtroom, the amount may reduce significantly. And I caution. I remember saying that I know even if we should win the 21 or close to $22 billion, collecting it is another game altogether.”
“There are two lawyers who will tell you that even the fact that you have won the case in court does not necessarily mean you will collect the money,” he said. “I remember citing the Woyome case. The Supreme Court said pay. But it took some time. I don’t know up to now whether it has been fully paid. So winning the case is one thing, but recovering it is a different ball game”, Mr Domelevo emphasised
He, however, commended the Attorney General for taking time to correct public misconceptions: “It is good that the Attorney General spends some time,” he said. “I listened to him. Clearly, he spent some time to dispel the view that anybody or any member or legal team of the NDC, for that matter, was trying to bribe their way through. I think that is very, very, very necessary.”
Domelevo further revealed that the ORAL team collected and compiled data, which included garbage.
According to Domelevo, the ORAL team was limited to gathering complaints without a preliminary investigation.
He added, “As for us, we just collected data and summed it up. We didn’t do any investigation”.
“A preliminary investigation may even show that some of the complaints were just noise. There’s nothing in it. But we collected the data as it did so, including the garbage.”
When asked to clarify the word “garbage,” Mr Domelevo explained, “Yes, because nobody came to us that we turned away and said, Yours we will not take.
So we collected all the information. Remember, we are not investigating. So when you come, we are not going to say that Mr Mensah substantiates what you are saying. So you just come and say that I know Mr Amaliba is involved in this, that, that, that, the amount is this. We look at the document you have, and we capture it. Some even came in the form of emails. What about if the person is just making it up?” he added.
Domelevo explained, “Being an experienced auditor, I know that you can even submit documents, and later on, when we test the document, the documents may not have any substance, or they may not be authentic,” he said. “So there will be a lot of garbage in it. There’s no two ways about that.”
Meanwhile, Dr Dominic Ayine has said he won’t bow to pressure to rush ORAL cases.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Wednesday, October 22, Dr Ayine stated, “It’s important that we do painstaking investigations. ORAL reports are still coming to my office.
Those who are pushing me to go to court, and those who are saying that by now convictions should have been obtained, I know you have legitimate expectations of the government officials, including President John Dramani Mahama and the Attorney General. But we need to do a good job.”
He cautioned, “Accountability takes time, and so it’s important that Ghanaians exercise patience. Not that I will rush to court, and defence lawyers will come and raise objections, and my case will be thrown out. And the same Ghanaians who wanted me to go to court expeditiously will turn around and say Ayine is an incompetent Attorney General”.
“I was never an incompetent lawyer in private practice; I don’t want to be in public service,” he said.
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