Auditor-General Cheerleaders Exposed

Daniel Yao Domelevo

A letter circulating on social media purporting to have ‘cleared’ the Senior Minister in the Kroll & Associates one million dollars payment case with the Auditor General (AG), Daniel Yao Domelevo, has turned out to be false.

According to the letter signed by Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, who is acting as AG, they had inspected the Kroll documents and were asking that the parties return to court to continue with the case.

“We wish to state that we are satisfied with the process and therefore propose that the lawyers inform the Supreme Court accordingly to enable the parties to go back to the High Court to continue with the proceedings in that court,” the acting AG’s letter to the Senior Minister stated.

Before the parties could to go back to the court, however, the letter had already been published on social media by supposed backers of the AG, creating the impression that it was the reason behind the directive from the Presidency for Mr. Domelevo to proceed on leave.

As a result, some analysts are calling for a thorough investigation into the circumstance leading to the unlawful leakage of the document.

The office where the letter emanated is the same office where assets declared by public officials like judges, MPs, ministers and other government appointees are taken.

Matters came to a head when the Senior Minister and four other public officers from the Ministry of Finance, who made an appeal before the High Court to set aside the decision of the AG to surcharge them, was called by the court recently.

The appeal was consolidated with that of Kroll and Associates who did the work for which the government paid them about a million dollars.

The High Court ordered that the parties appeared before the Supreme Court to determine an application filed by Kroll & Associates; and as a result, on June 24, 2020, the parties appeared before the Supreme Court.

Lawyer for Mr. Osafo-Maafo and the four others informed the Supreme Court that per a letter dated October 8, 2019, which the AG had placed before the High Court, Mr. Osafo-Maafo had offered opportunity to the AG to avail themselves for purposes of inspection and study of the documents as the law entitles him to do.

The AG refused to accede to the request of Mr. Osafo-Maafo, and a few days later the AG took the decision to surcharge Mr. Osafo-Maafo and the four others.

The Supreme Court therefore urged lawyers for the parties to endeavour to sort out the matter amicably; failing which the parties were to file their submissions 10 days from June 24, 2020.

On the evening of June 29, 2020, Mr. Osafo-Maafo’s office reportedly received a letter dated June 25, 2020 and signed by Mr. Domelevo informing the Senior Minister that due to Covid-19, he would be available to meet his (Osafo-Maafo’s) team of at least three persons with the documents evidencing work done by Kroll and Associates at 9:00am on Monday, June 29 or 30 respectively.

Mr. Domelevo’s letter was reportedly received in the offices of Mr. Osafo-Maafo in the evening of the June 29, 2020. And therefore on June 30, 2020, when the letter was brought to the attention of Mr. Osafo-Maafo, he issued a reply to Mr. Domelevo’s letter reiterating his (Osafo-Maafo) desire that the team from the AG’s office avail themselves for the process of inspection and urged Mr. Domelevo to arrange for the process to proceed before the end of the Supreme Court’s ultimatum, which was July 3, 2020.

On July 2, 2020, a team of auditors from the Office of the AG led by one of the deputy auditors reportedly availed themselves at the office of Mr. Osafo-Maafo and perused all relevant documents evidencing work done by Kroll and Associates.

On July 3, 2020, Mr. Osafo-Maafo’s office reportedly received a letter from the office of the AG, stating among other things that they were satisfied with the process of inspection, so the lawyers may inform the Supreme Court to enable the parties to go back to the High Court to continue with the case.

A document reportedly filed by Mr. Domelevo’s lawyer at the Supreme Court on July 3, 2020 has also urged the court to dismiss the case so the parties could go back to the High Court for the hearing of the appeal to commence.

“It is, therefore, disingenuous for some people to construe the letter of the office of the Auditor General to amount to a fact that Mr. Osafo-Maafo has been cleared,” a source told DAILY GUIDE.

By Ernest Kofi Adu