The Good Governance (GOGO) is urging the Office of Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) to launch a full-scale investigation into the roles played by transaction advisors in Ghana’s high-risk borrowing spree over the past eight years.
GOGO advocate Kwaku Azar claims these advisors were instrumental in designing, endorsing, and promoting numerous loan and bond deals that have left the country in dire fiscal straits.
He insists their actions enabled large-scale borrowing without transparency, proper due diligence, or accountability.
“These advisors weren’t just bystanders. They were architects of Ghana’s economic woes,” Azar said. “You can’t recover stolen wealth without exposing the entire network that made it possible.”
Azar emphasized that many of the borrowing arrangements were built on dubious projections and may have involved conflicts of interest and collusion with public officials.
He stressed that true accountability must extend beyond elected leaders to the consultants and institutions that profited from Ghana’s debt crisis.
GOGO is calling on ORAL to name all transaction advisors involved, scrutinize the quality and independence of their services, trace all commissions and incentives paid, and seek legal redress where negligence or fraud is uncovered.
“Accountability must not end at the steps of political power. The professionals who shaped and benefitted from these harmful deals must also answer,” Azar added.
Read the full statement below:
GOGO to ORAL: Investigate Transaction Advisors—“We Can’t Be Given Haircuts While They Wear Afros”
Accra — GOGO is calling on ORAL to urgently investigate the role of so-called transaction advisors who facilitated Ghana’s unprecedented and unsustainable borrowing over the past 8 years.
These “advisors” played a pivotal role in structuring, endorsing, and promoting loans and bond issuances that have left the country in a state of fiscal distress. Many of these transactions were shrouded in opacity, with questionable due diligence, inflated projections, and possible conflicts of interest.
“We cannot recover the nation’s wealth without uncovering the full network that enabled its looting,” said a spokesperson for GOGO. “Transaction advisors were were central to legitimizing and enabling excessive borrowing that lacked accountability and transparency.”
• Identify and publicly name all transaction advisors involved in key borrowing arrangements;
• Audit the quality, independence, and objectivity of the advice provided;
• Trace all fees, commissions, and incentives paid to these advisors;
• Investigate potential conflicts of interest and collusion with public officials;
• Pursue legal remedies, including recovery of professional fees where fraud or negligence is established.
To rebuild trust and restore fiscal stability, accountability must extend beyond public officials to the professionals and institutions that supported and profited from these damaging transactions.
