Fact-checked Akufo Addo Peddles Misinformation About Audit Reports

-In Sneak Attack On Domelevo.

President Akufo-Addo’s recent heaping of praises on the current acting Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu for allegedly publishing more statutory reports than all his predecessors is far from the truth according to the facts.

President Akufo Addo during a Jubilee House meeting on August 18, 2021, with the Ghana National Anti-Corruption Coalition, claimed Mr. Asiedu surpassed expectations in his functions at the office saying: “For instance, he is responsible for some things that are unheard of. In our history, the 12 statutory reports that have to be compiled and placed before Parliament in the year of Parliament, this is the first time it has ever been done.”

However, a simple search on the website of the Audit Service shows that officially published reports under Mr. Asiedu are just seven (7) and not 12 as President Akufo Addo claimed.

Even the seven reports would be split between him [Asiedu] and his predecessor, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, who was forcefully kicked out of office personally by President Akufo Addo under the guise of his accumulated annual leave.

As at 2021 where Mr. Asiedu is in full control of the Audit Service, no report has been officially published, except the recent one that was sent to Parliament. Yet, Sec 23 of the Audit Service Act (2000), recommends that statutory audit reports be publicly published as soon as they are submitted to the Speaker of Parliament.

Despite these clear facts, President Akufo Addo went ahead to whip up the misinformation that Mr. Asiedfu had done better than the “most touted” Domelevo.

“Even the most touted Auditor General before him never managed to do it [12 statutory reports placed before Parliament in a year], and this one has done it…I think on the basis of the work that he has done, the independence with which he has gone around with his work if today efforts are made to confirm him, I believe it should be done, and that confirmation process will gather more public support,” President Akufo Addo stated.

Records from the Audit Service’s own website shows clearly that under Domelevo, more statutory audit reports had been published than under Mr. Asiedu.

The website shows that in 2018, 11 audit reports were published, in 2019, nine (9) reports were published and in 2020, only seven (7) reports had been published. Part of the seven reports were under the supervision of Mr. Domelevo, before he was forcefully kicked in August 2020.

Akufo Addo’s Jubilee House had directly hounded out Domelevo for tracking down a dubious US$ 1 million payment made by the erstwhile Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo to UK-based Kroll and Associates.

Domelevo was in the middle of a court case to prove Osaafo Maafo’s alleged dubious payments to Kroll and Associates when Akufo Addo in an unprecedented move wrote to Domelevo to take a 165-day leave because he had not taken his leave since he became an Auditor General.

At the time, the court had given Mr. Domelevo and Mr. Osafo Maafo 10 days to prove that the Kroll payment was not fraudulent. 

Indeed, for over two years, Domelevo had been chasing Osafo Maafo for proof of work done by Kroll to deserve such payments but the former Senior Minister had been unable to provide the said proof, forcing Domelevo to surcharge him.

Meanwhile, less than 24 hours after the Jubilee House had forced Domelevo to go on leave in the middle of his legal tussle with Osafo Maafo, a close friend of President Akufo Addo, his deputy and now Acting A-G, Johnson Asiedu, curiously cleared Osafo Maafo, saying all the proof of work done by Kroll and Associates had been provided overnight.

Of course, critics pointed out the conspiracy and also pointed out the fact that Johnson Asiedu is virtually an “errand boy” for the Chairman of the Audit Service Board, Professor Edward Duah-Agyeman who works directly for the Jubilee House and had been accused by Domelevo of fraudulent activities at the Audit Service.

Interestingly, the President’s claims about Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu are miles away from what staff of the Audit Service estimates him to be.

According to a character-sketch that was given to Mr. Asiedu in an August 2020 petition asking president Akufo-Addo not to make him Acting Auditor General. He is shady, lazy, and a poodle of controversial Audit Service Board Chairman, Prof. Edward Dua Agyeman.

Numbering some 11,000 in all, the petitioners, who included staff of the Audit Service, the petitioners pointed out that the Ag. Auditor-General has credibility challenges.

 ‘’Mr. Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu disregarded an approval letter from PPA and upon the direction of Professor Edward Dua Agyeman, awarded the contracts to some firms other than those who participated in the procurement process,” the petition from the Audit Service read.