Daniel Domelevo
The Auditor General, David Domelevo, has appealed to the Attorney General to grant him special authority to prosecute and surcharge persons who infringe on the country’s procurement laws.
Mr Domelevo made the call at a press conference in Accra yesterday to comment on some GH¢5.4 billion wrongfully paid to contractors and other service providers by state officials at various ministries between 2014 and 2017.
Addressing the media, the Auditor General indicated that his office had already applied to the Attorney General’s Office to be given a fiat to prosecute individuals found to have engaged in financial malfeasance.
Mr. Domelevo indicated that his inability to initiate action against offenders is hampering retrieval of stolen money.
“Do you have prosecutorial powers? No, I don’t have; as at now, completely zero. Can I have? Yes! That is if a fiat is given by the Attorney General to the Audit Service just like he has given to the police and others to prosecute…If I get that fiat, you will see me in action,” he stated.
He said the Attorney General’s Office has so much work, hence if he is given the authority to prosecute, surcharging can be expedited to retrieve wrongly paid monies.
According to him, the Auditor General’s Department has a legal division that scrutinizes cases before being made public.
Surcharge
It would be recalled that in June 2017, the Supreme Court ordered the Auditor General to, with immediate effect, begin surcharging persons found to have misappropriated monies belonging to the state.
That was after pressure group, OccupyGhana, had filed a suit in June 2016. About 62 companies were surcharged by the Auditor General to refund close to GH¢9 million.
Subsequently, in December 2017, the Auditor General told the public that it had surcharged 62 organisations for receiving payments from the state without any documentation as proof.
The surcharge certificates, totaling GH¢8,886,791.9101742 (GH¢8.9 billion), the Auditor General disclosed, was for the period between December 31, 2013 and December 31, 2015.
By Melvin Tarlue