A Coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) against corruption has lamented the forced retirement of Auditor General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo by the Akufo-Addo Jubilee House as constitutionally perverse.
In a statement, the Coalition also said the development sends wrong signals about the government’s willingness to fight corruption.
“The forced retirement of a constitutionally independent Auditor General who has excelled in his role since assuming office—recovering millions of cedis for the State leveraging his surcharge and disallowances powers—is not only constitutionally perverse, but it sends the wrong signals about the Nana Addo-led government’s commitment to fighting corruption and upholding the rule of law,” portions of the release stated.
Earlier in 2020, the President had forced Domelevo to take a 167-day mandatory leave because he had surcharged Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo over Maafo’s dubious payment of US$1million dollars to a UK company for no work done.
Then when Domelevo was just returning to work, the Audit Service Board chaired by Prof. Dua Agyemang, who has been the point man in the whole hounding campaign against Domelevo wrote to him informing him that his date of birth has changed from 1961 to 1960 and that he is therefore deemed to have retired.
The Audit Service Board also claimed Domelevo was a Togolese.
Many were hoping that for once, President Akufo-Addo whose administration is seen as the most corrupt in the country’s history deflect the urge to witch-hunt Domelevo and cure some of the perceptions that he was directly helping a corrupt Audit Service Board to hound out Domelevo who has countered many of the reported corrupt deals at the Audit Service.
But President Akufo Addo took the bait once more and forced Domelevo out, despite him being 59 years old and not 60 years old as the Audit Service had presented. The retirement age is 60 years in Ghana.
As the Coalition of anti-corruption CSOs point out, the forced retirement of Domelevo is coming at a time when two cases bordering on his independence from the executive are still pending.