Ghanaian business mogul, Sir Sam Jonah, has said there is a refreshing wind of change going through Ghana.
According to Sir Sam Jonah, President John Dramani Mahama took an important step with ORAL to deal with corrupt officials under the former government and hopes the government will see it through.
Sir Sam Jonah noted that ORAL would help ensure transparency and accountability in public office and hoped the foolishness and the culture of impunity would not continue under the Mahama administration.
Speaking in a recent interview on Starr FM, Sam Jonah stated, “The signs are good. There is a refreshing wind of change that is going through the country. An important first step was the ORAL. One hopes that they would have the courage to see it through.
“It is an inconvenient truth to say that ORAL should not be pursued because there must be accountability, there must be transparency,” he said.
Sam Jonah added, “So, to the extent that he has publicly made that one of his commitments to ensuring that there is accountability — not just with the previous government but even with his government. We hope that important lessons have been learnt, that some of the foolishness that we saw would not continue, that the culture of impunity would not continue.”
In that same interview, Sir Sam Jonah alleged that high-rise buildings in prime areas are being funded through dishonest sources.
According to Sam Jonah, vacant high-rise apartments in Accra’s affluent neighbourhoods—such as Airport Residential, Cantonments, and Labone are being funded with possible illicit financing.
He expressed serious concerns about the country’s booming luxury real estate market.
Sam Jonah highlighted that if high-rise buildings were funded through bank-backed loans, developers would be forced to rent or sell units quickly to service debts.
He explained, “If you walk around my area, Airport Residential, Cantonments or Labone, [look at] all the high-rise buildings going up. Everywhere in the world, developers go to the bank to take loans for those developments”.
“Some of these apartments are all empty. Do you think that if money were collected from banks, banks would not have moved in? What I’m saying is that they are being funded through sources which are not honest. Go around and ask, ‘Why are apartments empty? ’ if you had borrowed money, if you had gone to the bank to borrow money to build, you would ensure that those apartments are fully occupied.”
He added, “Ghanaian banks are not that well, and the balance sheets are not strong enough to give you patient capital to go and develop. The interest rates are just astronomical. You can hardly make it as a developer.”
Meanwhile, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, a private legal practitioner and social activist, has quizzed how the government’s Operation Recover All Loots (ORAL) is checking for judicial corruption.
Vormawor noted that billions have been stolen from state funds, which could wreak havoc on any legal system in the world.
According to Oliver Barker-Vormawor, Judges will be bribed to preserve the loot.
In a post on social media, Vormawor wrote, “Billions in stolen money will wreak havoc on any legal system in the world. Judges will be bribed to preserve the loot.
How is ORAL checking for judicial corruption? Or we are assuming it disappeared after the Anas exposé?”.